Japan Press Weekly

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2012 May 16 - 22 [OKINAWA]

Latest bilateral agreement is useless in reducing Okinawa’s base burdens

The Noda Cabinet is boasting about the latest Japan-U.S. agreement on the return of U.S. military facilities in Okinawa. However, local residents do not recognize it as providing any reduction in their base burdens.

Released in late April, the bilateral agreement on the realignment of the U.S. forces in Japan divides U.S. military facilities located south of the U.S. Kadena base in Okinawa into 13 districts and categorizes them as three types: facilities that will be shortly returned to Okinawa; facilities that will be returned after their functions are relocated to other parts of Okinawa; and facilities that will be returned after Marine personnel are relocated to outside Okinawa.

At a ceremony on May 15 commemorating the 40th anniversary of Okinawa’s restoration to Japan, Prime Minister Noda Yoshihiko boasted that the bilateral agreement will lead to a visible and concrete reduction of U.S. base burdens on Okinawa.

However, more than 93% of the U.S. military sites included in the agreement are categorized as sites for conditional return.

What about the facilities in the “swift return” category? One of them is the north access road to U.S. Camp Kinser in Urasoe City. Although it is officially designated as a U.S. military road, along the road are houses, apartment buildings, and factories for local Okinawans.

“It has been used by local people as their community road for over 40 years since before the return of Okinawa to Japan. It is absurd that it has not been returned yet,” said Oshiro Chosuke, former Naha City Assembly member of the Japanese Communist Party.

Another site listed for “swift return” is the Nishi-Futenma residential district (55 hectares) in U.S. Camp Zukeran. Most of the housing complexes on the hillside there are so old and dilapidated that it is obvious they have been abandoned for a long time.

“Local municipalities can do nothing with the return of just a portion of a military site such as this hillside,” said Oshiro. He stressed that local governments can promote utilization of former U.S. military sites in local development plans only when a whole military base is returned to them.