Japan Press Weekly

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2016 February 17 - 23 [POLITICS]

28,000 people surround Diet building opposing US base construction in Okinawa

In solidarity with Okinawans standing united to offer firm resistance to the construction of a U.S. military base in the Henoko district of Nago City, 28,000 people on February 21 surrounded the Diet building in Tokyo.

This action was hosted by an organizing committee consisting of trade unions and civic groups on the mainland of Japan. The rally was relayed live on the Internet to local protesters sitting in in protest near the construction site in Okinawa.

Nago City Mayor Inamine Susumu delivered a speech in front of the main gate of the Diet building. He strongly criticized the Abe government which had sued Okinawa Governor Onaga Takeshi for revoking his predecessor’s permission for the reclamation work in Henoko. “We cannot tolerate the government trampling on democracy and local autonomy. I hope that many actions of this kind will spread throughout the country,” he said.

Ashitomi Hiroshi, co-representative of the anti-U.S. Heliport Council, gave a speech, referring to the fact that the five opposition parties recently agreed to cooperate in the upcoming national elections in order to scrap the war legislation. He stressed, “Each and every one of us are sovereigns. We can overthrow the Abe government by our own actions. To block the base construction, I’ll continue to work with many people across the nation.”

At the rally, Japanese Communist Party lawmakers Akamine Seiken and Kasai Akira as well as representatives of the Democratic and Social Democratic parties gave speeches in solidarity.

Past related article:
> ‘All Okinawa council’ against Henoko base project formed [December 15, 2015]