Japan Press Weekly

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2015 October 21 - 27 [POLITICS]

Abe gov’t tries to bribe Okinawans so they will accept new US base

The Abe government announced a plan on October 26 to create a program to provide national funds directly to three local districts in Okinawa’s Nago City in a bid to persuade local people to accept the construction of a new U.S. military base.

On that day, Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga Yoshihide met with representatives of the three districts near the construction site (Henoko, Kushi, and Toyohara) at the prime minister’s office in Tokyo, explaining the new scheme to be implemented from this fiscal year.

The national government is going to allot funds to the three districts to “promote regional development”. The allocated money is expected to be used to repair facilities such as local community centers.

The aim of this new subsidy program is to split and weaken the strong local opposition to the U.S. base construction project, regardless of Nago City Mayor Inamine Susumu who is strenuously opposing the construction. The government act would violate the right to autonomy of local governments which is guaranteed under the Japanese Constitution.

Repair of public facilities like citizens’ centers and assembly halls should be done by local governments. If the state is allowed to arbitrarily select regions in the country and pour national government funds into them, it will also undermine the principle of fair and equal use of taxpayer money.

After Inamine was elected as city mayor in 2010 with a campaign promise to oppose the U.S. base construction plan, the central government stopped providing the city with subsidies associated with the program to reorganize the U.S. forces. In collaboration with local citizens, Mayor Inamine has since worked to change the conventional city policies which had been heavily dependent on state subsidies.

The Abe administration is getting more and more impatient as Mayor Inamine and Okinawa Governor Onaga Takeshi are teaming up to block the base construction.

The Abe government’s tactics to use the power of money in order to silence local residents will inevitably fuel Okinawans’ rage. In protest against such dirty measures, a mass rally is scheduled for October 30 in the Kushi district.

Past related article:
> Yamashita: PM should accept Okinawa governor’s decision to revoke approval of landfill project at Henoko [September 15, 2015]