Japan Press Weekly

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2008 May 28 - June 3 [US FORCES]

Establish dugong sanctuary and cancel new U.S. air base plan: JCP Ichida

Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Ichida Tadayoshi on May 27 stated that a sanctuary should be established in the sea area where a rare national species of dugongs live.

Speaking at the House of Councilors Environment　Committee meeting which discussed the basic bill on biodiversity, he called for the plan to construct a state-of-the-art U.S. air base off the Henoko district of Nago City, Okinawa, to be cancelled.

The bill is about the promotion of environmental impact assessments at the planning stage of any projects. Last year, the government published guidelines for the introduction of a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA).

Nishio Tetsushige, the ministry’s Environmental Management Bureau director-general, explained to Ichida that a “zero option” (of not projecting the project) could be part of several alternatives that will be assessed in accordance with the guidelines.

Ichida warned that the dumping of about 3.4 million truck loads of sand in the sea of Henoko will destroy sea grass beds, a feeding ground for dugongs.

He said that the guidelines’ “zero option” should be applied to this project so that the sea mammal’s safety will be ensured.

Nishio, however, claimed that “zero option” is not obligatory under the environmental impact assessment concerning the new base plan. He was suggesting that the government is committed to promoting the new U.S. base plan.

Stressing that the new air base to replace the U.S. Marine Corps Futenma Air Station in Okinawa, if constructed, will mean constructing a streamlined, perpetual, and far larger U.S. air base than Futenma’s, Ichida urged the government to withdraw the new base plan.