Japan Press Weekly

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2014 January 29 - February 4 [OKINAWA]

City assembly expresses disappointment over state inviting bids for Henoko landfill work

Okinawa’s Nago City Assembly on February 3 adopted a statement stating that it is “disappointing and hard to understand” that the state pushed forward the plan to build a new U.S. base in the city’s Henoko district despite the re-election of the anti-base mayor.

The statement points out that even though the result of the January 19 mayoral election clearly showed the opposition of the residents, the Okinawa Defense Bureau only two days after the election began accepting tenders for the landfill project in the sea area off the Henoko district.

The statement also criticizes the national government for having pressured Okinawa Governor Nakaima Hirokazu and some anti-base politicians to approve the Henoko reclamation work. “We feel anger over the central government trying to impose further burdens of U.S. military bases on us and our future generations,” it stresses.

The statement expresses its opposition to the construction of a new U.S. base in Henoko and demanded that the national government give up the plan to relocate the U.S. Futenma base in Ginowan City within the prefecture and work to remove the base without delay.

On the same day, the prefectural assembly adopted another statement urging Governor Nakaima to retract his approval of the state’s application for the landfill project in Henoko.