Japan urges Okinawa to concede in US air base row

The Japanese government has urged the governor of Okinawa Prefecture to concede in a row over the relocation of a controversial US military base on the southern island.

“We hope to get your understanding on the plan... for maintaining the deterrent power of the Japan-US alliance,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told Okinawa Governor Takeshi Onaga during a meeting in the prefecture’s capital city of Naha on Sunday.

Onaga, however, countered that any national security plan must have the Japanese people’s support, adding, “Okinawa never voluntarily offered (land) for bases.”

“I’m convinced that it is impossible to construct a new base,” Onaga added, referring to a plan to move the Futenma Air Base from a more congested part of Okinawa to the southern city of Nago.

The meeting came after the central government muscled the governor out of the way last week, suspending his stop-order of the US air base project.

On March 23, Onaga demanded that the Japanese government halt all construction activities at the new site, citing reports that concrete blocks used in underwater drilling surveys had damaged coral reefs in the region.

The statements come ahead of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s week-long US tour starting April 28, which will focus on deepening trade and military ties.

Abe is also scheduled to meet Onaga, his right-hand man, before the US tour, the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper reported, citing unnamed sources from the Okinawa government.

The US has had a major military presence in Okinawa since the end of World War II. About half of the 50,000 American military personnel in Japan are stationed on the island.

The deadlock over the base has been a major source of tension between Tokyo and Washington since 1996 when the two governments agreed on the original plan to move the base.

According to the relocation plans, the Futenma air base would be moved from Ginowan City to the thinly populated Henoko district in Nago, due to concerns over high levels of aircraft noise, accidents in civilian areas and rampant crimes, such as rape, by the US soldiers stationed at the base.

Many Henoko citizens are opposed to the construction of the military base, which they say would endanger the coral reef, tropical fish and other marine life.

However, Abe has persistently expressed his support for the project as his government considers it a key component to Japan's military alliance with the US.

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