February 20, 2015

Okinawa Governor Onaga Takeshi on February 19 delivered a policy speech at the opening plenary session of the prefectural assembly, saying that he will make all-out efforts to fulfill his campaign promise to block the planned construction of a new U.S. military base in the prefecture.

Based on the approval by Onaga’s predecessor for a landfill project to build the base, the Abe government is pushing ahead with the preparation work in the Henoko coastal area in Nago City.

Regarding the former governor’s approval for the reclamation project, Onaga said that he will consider revoking the permission after the prefecture’s third party and independent commission, which was set up in late January to check whether the approving process had any legal flaw, comes to a conclusion.

The governor expressed his intent to demand that the Japanese and U.S. administrations remove all the crash-prone aircraft Ospreys from the U.S. Marine Corps Futenma Air Station in Ginowan City. He also announced a plan to station prefectural officials in Washington in order to collect information and transmit Okinawa’s messages directly to relevant offices.

“The U.S. bases have become the greatest factor hampering the economic growth of Okinawa,” Onaga stressed. He went on to say that he will work to draw up a local economic policy focusing on Okinawa’s beautiful nature, rich natural resources, and traditional culture, not depending on “benefits” from foreign military bases.

Past related article:
> Okinawa Gov. orders halt to preparation work for US base construction [February 17, 2015]