Japan Press Weekly

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2008 October 1 - 7 [US FORCES]

Four billion yen in tax money used to construct luxurious junior high school on U.S. base in Okinawa

Japan expended 4 billion yen for the construction of a junior high school on the U.S. Kadena Air Base in Okinawa. The money was from the so-called “sympathy budget” for funding the stationing of U.S. forces in Japan.

This was revealed by Okinawa Prefectural Board of Education Chief Nakamura Morikazu in his response to Japanese Communist Party representative Toguchi Osamu’s question during the Okinawa Prefectural Assembly Plenary Session on September 30.

The land area for this new junior high school, constructed for the sons and daughters of U.S. military personnel in the Kadena Base, is 168,000 square meters, the largest in the Pacific region. The total floor space of the school building is 14,000 square meters. The school has a 400-meter running track, four basketball courts, two tennis courts, and a football court. No junior high school in Okinawa has such luxurious facilities.

In replay to Toguchi’s question, Okinawa Governor Nakaima Hirokazu said, “Comparing it to other Japanese schools in Okinawa, this school in the Kadena Base is luxurious. I have a strong sense of incongruity.”

He also said, “Matters related to the U.S. military bases should be discussed in the National Diet.”

Toguchi criticized the governor for “caring only about U.S. forces and neglecting the Okinawa citizens’ feeling.”