Japan Press Weekly

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2012 June 13 - 19 [OKINAWA]

Flight training of Ospreys not conducted in US

Japanese Communist Party member of the Diet Kasai Akira on June 15 pressed the government to refuse the Osprey deployment to Japan, stating that Osprey flight training is being suspended even in the U.S.

At a meeting of the Lower House Foreign Affairs Committee, Kasai pointed out that the U.S. Air Force, after receiving many complaints from local residents, abandoned the plan to conduct low-altitude flight training of Ospreys at Canon Air Force Base in New Mexico.

He also raised the issue of a crash by a U.S. Air Force CV22 Osprey two days ago in Florida, and demanded that the Japanese government cancel the plan to have MV22 Ospreys deployed to the U.S. Marine Corps Futenma base in Okianwa while the cause of the accident is still being investigated.

Foreign Minister Genba Koichiro replied, “For now, I can’t say if (the accident) will have any effect on the deployment to Japan.”

Another JCP representative, Akamine Seiken, also took up the Osprey issue at a meeting of the Lower House Security Committee held on the same day, and pointed to two recent crashes involving the aircraft in question.

So far, the Japanese government has stated to the general public that Ospreys are safe.

Akamine stated that it is as a matter of course as host nation to discontinue the procedures for the Osprey deployment to Japan unless the cause of those accidents becomes clear.

Defense Minister Morimoto Satoshi said, “We will discuss what to do after being informed of the details of the accidents from the U.S.”