Japan Press Weekly

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2012 September 12 - 18 [OKINAWA]

Defense minister unwelcomed by Okinawans

Visiting Okinawa, Defense Minister Morimoto Satoshi on September 11 met with protests and anger from Okinawans opposing the planned deployment of the crash-prone U.S. aircraft MV/22 Osprey.

Minister Morimoto came to give the prefectural government an explanation parroting what the U.S. military concludes that a “human error” caused an Osprey crash in Florida in June.

On the day before his visit, 100,000 people participated in a rally in Ginowan City in opposition to the Osprey deployment.

The shouts of protesters resounded as a limo Morimoto was in slipped into the compound of the prefectural government office at high speed.

The Japanese Communist Party, two local political parties, and other citizens’ groups organized this action as part of their joint struggle against the relocation of the Futemna base (Ginowan City) to another location in Okinawa.

Vice head of the JCP local committee, Maeda Masaaki said, “The U.S. military bases and the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty are the root cause of Okinawans’ agony. With the huge turnout for the rally, we reaffirmed the Okinawan consensus to remove the Futenma base.”