Japan Press Weekly

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2013 March 6 - 12 [US FORCES]

JCP protests against Ospreys’ first flight training exercise on mainland Japan

The U.S. military has conducted low-altitude flight training exercises of the MV22 Osprey aircraft over Japan’s mainland for the first time since their deployment to the Futenma base in Okinawa last October.

The training exercises use the U.S.-designated “orange” route set over three prefectures in the Shikoku region and Wakayama Prefecture in the Kinki region.

The flight training of three Ospreys, which were moved from the Futenma base to the U.S. Iwakuni base in Yamaguchi Prefecture, started on March 6 followed by the first nighttime flight training the next day.

Leaders of municipalities in the three prefectures of Ehime, Kochi, and Tokushima located under the orange route have raised protests against the Ospreys’ flight training exercises.

Kochi’s Motoyama Town Mayor Imanishi Yoshihiko said to Akahata, “The Ospreys’ low-altitude flight training over mainland Japan jeopardizes the public safety and is unacceptable. Under the orange route, there are many landing sites for emergency helicopters, including medical helicopters. The Osprey’s training increases the risk of aircraft accidents. The town government will monitor the training exercise while calling for a halt to it.”

The Japanese Communist Party Ehime Prefectural Committee on March 6 petitioned Ehime Governor Nakamura Tokihiro to urge the U.S. military to stop the flight training.

In the petition, prefectural committee chair Hayashi Noriko said, “The Osprey training conducted in Okinawa has clearly shown a breach of the Japan-U.S. agreement. The prefecture should protest against it and request the discontinuation of the training.”

Delegates of JCP organizations in the Kinki region which includes Wakayama on the orange route on March 7 visited the Kinki-Chubu Defense Bureau to demand the withdrawal of the Osprey deployment and the cancellation of the aircraft’s low-altitude flight training.