Japan Press Weekly

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2016 July 20 - 26 TOP3 [POLITICS]

Tokyo again sues Okinawa over Henoko base issue

Akahata editorial (excerpt)

Regarding the plan to construct a new U.S. base in Henoko in Okinawa, the Abe government on July 22 filed another lawsuit with the Fukuoka High Court Naha Branch claiming that it is illegal for Governor Onaga Takeshi to turn down the state instruction to withdraw Okinawa’s decision to cancel the permission for reclamation work in Henoko’s coastal area.

The Abe government has decided to restart court battles because the Henoko base construction issue is coming to a stalemate and the government is being driven into a corner. Governor Onaga has the broad authority to block the Henoko project, including the power to cancel the landfill approval for the Henoko project. He can exercise his authority to deny any revisions of the construction plan. This makes it extremely difficult for the central government to resume the construction work.

The Henoko reclamation work has been halted since Tokyo and Okinawa in March accepted a court-proposed settlement in the previous lawsuit where Tokyo attempted to give the green light to the reclamation over the head of the governor. The Fukuoka High Court Naha Branch, which handled this lawsuit, in its proposal stated that the confrontation between the Okinawa prefectural and central governments goes against the spirit of the Local Autonomy Act and encouraged the both parties to sit at the negotiation table to come up with a mutually acceptable outcome.

In addition, the court proposal stated that if unsatisfied with the state instruction for the withdrawal of Okinawa’s cancellation of the landfill approval, the prefectural government should file a claim with the central government’s third party organization.

The third-party organization in June issued its final report which did not judge whether the state instruction is appropriate or not. As a reason for this, the report stated that the common grounds for discussions between Tokyo and Okinawa are still insufficient and that making the judgement about the appropriateness of the state instruction will not help build a desirable central-local relationship. The report concluded that Tokyo and Okinawa should “sincerely hold talks and work to hammer out a resolution which is acceptable to both parties. This is the best way to settle the dispute.”

Both the court proposal and the third-party organization’s report pointed out that the confrontation between the state and the prefecture is not in line with the principle of local autonomy and called on both parties to sincerely discuss ways to resolve the problem.

The court proposal, however, did not anticipate that Tokyo would sue Okinawa again. By waging a new court battle, the Abe government is turning its back on the March proposal and the June report.

Past related article:
> Okinawa and Tokyo accept court-proposed-settlement in lawsuit over Henoko base [March 5, 2016]