Local officials baulk at U.S. plans to station accident-prone Osprey planes at Tokyo base

Japanese central government officials on Tuesday welcomed news from the Pentagon that the U.S. military will deploy CV-22 Osprey transport aircraft at the Yokota Air Base in Tokyo in 2017 as the use of the aircraft continues to expand here, while local officials voiced concern.

The U.S. military said it plans to send three of the tilt-rotor planes to the Yokota base, located in a suburb of Tokyo, in the second half of 2017, adding that seven more will be deployed by 2021.

The news marks the first time the CV-22 Osprey will be used officially outside of Okinawa Prefecture, where the planes were first deployed to the U.S. Marine Corps Futenma Air Station in 2012.

But in the three years since their first deployment, the planes, which can take off and land like a helicopter, but fly like a regular plane, have been spotted flying drills over Shikoku and at Japanese Self-Defense Force training grounds in Shiga Prefecture, both in western Japan, as well as flying into U.S. bases at Atsugi, in Kanagawa Prefecture next to Tokyo and Yokota in western Tokyo.

Ospreys, much to the consternation of local officials due to the planes' checkered safety history, have also been seen flying over Tohoku and Hokkaido regions in northeastern and northern Japan, according to officials in those regions.

While Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, Japan's top government spokesperson, has welcomed the U.S. Department of Defense's plans to station a special operations squadron of the planes in Yokota in 2017, telling reporters Tuesday that the plan will contribute to stability in the Asia-Pacific region, other officials remain concerned.

Ikuo Kato, mayor of Fussa City which hosts the Yokota Air Base, told a press conference Tuesday that he was briefed by defense department representatives on the plan for just 10 minutes and was "utterly surprised" by the unexpected news.

Kato insisted that he be given more details from both the U.S. and the Japan side on the plan, so as to ease the concerns of the local citizens. He also said the central government here was at fault over this issue for browbeating local municipalities into accepting decisions that have already been green-lit without sufficient consultation with regional heads.

He added that if the two governments continue to act in such a manner, cities like Fussa who are being forced to host more U.S. military hardware could see anti-U.S. sentiment grow, as has been the case in Okinawa, which hosts the bulk of the U.S. military bases in Japan.

Tokyo Governor Yoichi Masuzoe, for his part, said Tuesday that he will insist that safety is prioritized for residents near the bases hosting the Ospreys, as the planes have a less-than-stellar safety record.

The accident-prone planes' safety was most recently called into question in August last year when four crew members escaped injury when a Marine Corps' Osprey made what investigators called a "hard landing" near the Creech Air Force Base in Nevada, in the United States

Questions about the planes' safety were also asked in April 2012, when an Osprey crashed in Morocco and killed two Marines.

Another crash in Florida in June 2012, which injured all five crew members, did little to improve faith in the plane, each of which costs more than 100 million U.S. dollars.

During the Osprey's developmental phase 30 Marines died in three crashes, including 19 in a single accident in Arizona, in 2000, according to official U.S. military aviation records.

Adding to the plane's dubious safety record, in 2010 an Air Force CV-22 touched down short of its landing zone in Afghanistan, hit a ditch, and flipped over, killing four Marines.

Up until now the U.S. Marine Corps has already stationed 24 units of the MV-22 at the controversial Futenma Air Station in Okinawa and the government here has committed to buying at least 17 Ospreys to be used by the Ground Self-Defense Force. Endi