Japan Press Weekly

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2012 March 21 - 27 [US FORCES]

Asaka mayor objects to US Marines deployment to Asaka City

Asaka City Mayor Tomioka Katsunori on March 21 expressed his opposition to the partial relocation of the U.S. Marines Command from Okinawa to Japan’s Ground Self-Defense Force Camp Asaka in Asaka City in Saitama Prefecture.

Japanese Communist Party assemblymember Saito Hiromichi, at a city assembly session on the same day, referred to the statement made by Prime Minister Noda Yoshihiko at the February 17 Lower House committee that he is willing to consider including the relocation-to-Asaka idea as an option. Saito asked the mayor how the city will respond.

Mayor Tomioka in his response to Saito objected to the idea of hosting U.S. forces again at the JGSDF Camp Asaka, saying, “U.S. bases were stationed in the city (from the end of the Second World War until 1986), and the city government shouldered that burden long enough.”

Saito asked the mayor to firmly indicate the city’s position to the national government.