September 2, 2016
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2016 August 31 - September 6 [POLITICS]
Riot police intimidating Okinawans staying at luxury resort hotel |
This has come to light when an international environmental NGO, FoE Japan, in late August made representations to the National Police Agency regarding the excessive policing in Takae.
The NPA has given no information about which accommodations the riot police officers are staying at. However, local residents see many police vehicles parked in the parking lot of a five-star hotel in Nago City built on a large area facing the Pacific Ocean.
In the negotiation with the NGO, the NPA said that it sent riot police officers to Okinawa from six other prefectures – Tokyo, Kanagawa, Chiba, Aichi, Osaka, and Fukuoka – and that the cost of accommodation and transportation and various allowances for them are all covered with public money.
The agency refused to give details on the expenses incurred for “security reasons”. Calculating the cost based on the number of dispatched officers and the hotel room rates, it totals at least several million yen per day.
Meanwhile, many private security guards are patrolling the gates of the construction site around the clock every day. In response to an Akahata inquiry, the Defense Ministry said that the contracts the ministry made with private security companies in fiscal 2016 amount to some 800 million yen in total. This figure is equivalent to about 2.2 million yen a day.
In addition, the ministry is using its staff members, who were originally dispatched to Okinawa for patrol duties to prevent U.S. military personnel from committing crimes, to handle local protesters in Takae.
Past related article:
> Okinawa governor criticizes excessive policing in Takae [August 26 & 27, 2016]
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