Japan Press Weekly

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2015 February 11 - 17 TOP3 [POLITICS]

Okinawa Gov. orders halt to preparation work for US base construction

Okinawa Governor Onaga Takeshi on February 16 ordered the local bureau of the Defense Ministry to put a halt to the dropping of concrete blocks into the sea off the Henoko district in Nago City.

The governor told reporters that the blocks are destroying coral reefs on the seabed.

In order to set up a “no-go” zone in the waters to keep protesters outside the planned construction site, the defense authorities in late January forcibly began to sink a lot of huge concrete blocks to anchor buoys. Those blocks weigh tens of tons each.

The prefecture’s fisheries coordination regulations require any project associated with crushing of the seafloor rock to obtain permission from the governor in advance.

Although the state claims that it had gotten an OK from Onaga’s predecessor, that approval was for the project to reclaim the sea area to build the base, not for installing a wider “no-go” area. The locations where the defense authorities have been dropping the blocks are far from the landfill site.

Photos civic group members recently took in the sea show that many living reefs are being crushed under concrete blocks dropped outside the approved zone.

Onaga also suggested that he will revoke the former governor’s approval itself if the bureau fails to abide by his direction.


Past related article:
> Gov’t should stop US base construction in Henoko [February 3, 2015]