Japan Press Weekly

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2015 March 4 - 10 [POLITICS]

GSDF may permanently be stationed at Henoko new base

Japanese Communist Party Kokuta Keiji has learned that the Defense Ministry secretly made a plan to have the new base at Henoko in Okinawa used by both the Ground Self-Defense Force and the U.S. forces.

The joint use of the base will mean the creation of a Japan-U.S. military stronghold in Okinawa and will impose greater than ever base burdens on Okinawans.

JCP member of the House of Representatives Kokuta at a House Budget Committee meeting on March 3 introduced two internal documents he had obtained. They are stamped “handle with special care” and were dated July 2012. Both documents state that the ministry is considering stationing a GSDF infantry regiment “permanently” at the new U.S. base to be constructed inside U.S. Camp Schwab and expanding the base sharing provisions, which currently permit only “temporary” use by the SDF.

Kokuta asked Defense Minister Nakatani Gen about this plan. “Various considerations are under way,” said Nakatani who admitted to the plan but later modified his answer. He said, “I have no idea what these documents are. The ministry has no intention of sharing the base permanently.” Prime Minister Abe Shinzo also said, “I am certainly not aware of such a plan.”

Abe repeatedly claimed that the new base “will fully ease the burden” of bases and that his government “will patiently explain to the people of Okinawa” about the new base, but the government secretly sketched out a plan to establish a major military stronghold which will without doubt increase the base burdens on Okinawans. Kokuta criticized Abe for acting contrary to his explanation.