Japan Press Weekly

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2013 May 22 - 28 [US FORCES]

Kyoto residents organize to block installation of US missile defense radar site

Citizens in Kyoto Prefecture on May 22 established a group to protest against the national government plan to install U.S. missile defense radar at a Japanese Self-Defense Force base in the prefecture.

The Japanese and the U.S. governments announced that they will jointly install an AN/TPY-2 system at the Air Self-Defense Force Kyogamisaki sub base in Kyotango City. It is an X-band radar used to detect and track ballistic missiles. The same type of radar was already installed at the Air Self-Defense Force Shariki base in Tsugaru City, Aomori Prefecture.

Around 250 people took part in the organization’s first meeting held in Kyoto City and resolved to press Tokyo and Washington to cancel the plan.

In the meeting, a representative of an anti-base activists’ group in Kyotango City talked about the current situation, and a newspaper editor from Aomori spoke about what Aomori experienced after the deployment of the radar system.

Japanese Communist Party candidate for the Upper House Election Kurabayashi Akiko in her speech in solidarity said, “There is the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty at the root of this problem. In cooperation with people in Okinawa, let’s work hard to block the strengthening of U.S. military foothold in Kyoto Prefecture.”

In a summit meeting on February 22, Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo and U.S. President Barack Obama agreed to install the radar system at the Kyogamisaki sub base. The system will require the acquisition of a few more hectares of land and the stationing of around 100 more U.S. military or civilian personnel in order to be fully operational, according to the Defense Ministry.

Related past article
> Controversial U.S. private military company guards missile-defense radar installed at U.S. base in Japan [November 22, 2007]