Japan Press Weekly

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2017 February 1 - 7 TOP3 [POLITICS]

JCP Koike: Gov’t should stop offshore work for Henoko base construction project

Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Koike Akira on February 6 at a press conference criticized the Abe government for commencing the full-scale offshore work needed to construct a U.S. military base in Okinawa’s Henoko district in the face of a Japan-U.S. summit meeting scheduled for February 10.

This indicates that Prime Minister Abe Shinzo is trying to use the Henoko base construction project to win U.S. President Donald Trump’s favor, Koike stressed.

The JCP lawmaker said that jointly with Okinawa Governor Onaga Takeshi, the party will work hard to block the base construction.

Koike also noted that PM Abe last week in a meeting with U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis in Japan affirmed his commitment to push forward with the Henoko base construction. Koike criticized PM Abe for disregarding Okinawans’ voices of protest, pointing out the fact that the Abe-Mattis meeting was held when Governor Onaga was visiting America to convey to U.S. Congress members his message that Okinawans are opposed to the new military base construction.

In the course of the offshore work in Henoko, the Defense Ministry’s Okinawa Defense Bureau plans to sink a total of 228 concrete blocks weighing 11-14 tons and dump landfill materials into the area. The sinking of the blocks alone will be enough to seriously damage the natural environment through destruction of coral reefs and causing changes in ocean currents.

It is reported that Governor Onaga is ready to take every possible measure to block the construction work such as refusal to renew his predecessor’s approval for breaking rocks in the Henoko sea area which will expire at the end of March.