Roundup: Tokyo's plans to build new U.S. base possibly scuppered by Okinawa officials' resistance

The local government in Japan's southernmost prefecture of Okinawa on Monday instructed the Defense Ministry to suspend its underwater reclamation operations for the planned construction of a new U.S. military base in a coastal region of the island.

Okinawa Governor Takeshi Onaga said that if the regional defense bureau refuses to halt its drilling operations off the coast of Henoko, in Nago City, the prefectural government may rescind a permit granted to the defense ministry by his predecessor.

Talking to local media, Onaga, a staunch opponent to the planned construction of a new U.S. Marine base involving the reclamation of land from the sea in Oura Bay in Henoko, Okinawa, to replace the Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, currently located in the densely populated region of Ginowan on the main island of Naha, said that the defense ministry's underwater operations have damaged a coral reef in the area.

Okinawa's regional defense bureau was, as it previously stated, conducting the drilling so as to better comprehend the depth and density of the seabed's bedrock and the underwater geology and geography of the large area of sea, which will be reclaimed to be used for the U.S. base.

But research conducted by prefectural officials last month found that the defense ministry sinking concrete blocks weighing up to 45 tons into the sea to tether floating "no entry" signs around the drilling zone has crushed an endangered coral reef located outside of the demarcation zone.

Local officials expressed concern Monday that more damage may have been caused within the "no entry" zone, which the U.S. military has, thus far, refused to allow the prefectural government inside to inspect.

Onaga, who became governor in December on the back of a campaign to stop the construction of the new U.S. base in the picturesque Henoko region of the island, has consistently said that drilling operations by the defense ministry will cause irrevocable damage to the local environment, a claim that the central government has brushed aside, previously stating that it will carry on "without making a fuss," while making sure the environment around the site will be preserved.

Describing the actions of the defense ministry as "utterly deplorable" Onaga has urged the regional bureau to remove the concrete slabs and do its utmost to restore the damage they've done to the marine life there.

In addition the prefectural government has told the central government that once the permit has been revoked -- a move that may come within a week -- the defense ministry will be unable to continue with its drilling survey in the area, and its construction plans could be quashed.

The central government, for its part, said they were disappointed with Onaga's stance as it was straining ties between Tokyo and Okinawa over the relocation issue and suggested that it would forge ahead with its plans, despite mounting local opposition from the prefectural government and the island's citizens

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a press conference Monday that" "We are going to pursue construction work without delay."

Growing resistance in Okinawa to moves by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's administration to relocate the airbase from Futenma to Henoko, will do little to lessen Washington's irritation with Tokyo over the base move -- a project, part of a realignment of U. S. forces here, long-delayed due to the central government repeatedly failing to gain the consent of the prefectural government and its citizens.

And while Tokyo will have to contend with rising and likely indignant disapproval and protests to its base construction plan by Okinawan officials and citizens if it decides to ignore Onaga rescinding its permit to drill, and continues with its operations regardless, prefectural officials have prepared another stumbling block for the defense ministry that could also see its base building plans hindered, if not scuppered entirely.

Okinawan officials, including Onaga, may look to block the construction of a runway planned to be built on reclaimed land in Henoko, under the Japan's Public Water Body Reclamation Law, which states that reclaiming publicly owned water areas requires the approval of the prefectural governor.

If Onaga is successful, the central government will be forced to amend the reclamation law, or change the construction plan, both of which would be a further headache for the central government, nuisance to Washington and spark more truculent protests from the islanders.

Abe has said he is trying to ease the base hosting burdens of the people of Okinawa as the islanders shoulder the burden of hosting 75 percent of Japan's U.S. bases and around half of all the U.S. military personnel deployed there.

But the tiny island, however, accounts for just one percent of Japan's total land area, and many local citizens, feeling that they have suffered for long enough from base-related accidents, environmental pollution and instances of crime, just want the U.S. bases moved off their island entirely. Endi