Roundup: Okinawa steps up campaign to block controversial U.S. base move

The prefectural parliament of Okinawa passed an injunction Monday aimed at delaying the planned relocation of a controversial U.S. airbase within Japan's southernmost prefecture as mandated by the central government based on an existing accord with the United States.

According to local media, the prefectural assembly in Okinawa passed an ordinance that will govern the use of soil transported from outside the southern island prefecture and potentially block non-indigenous soil from being used in landfill work necessary for the preparation of the coastal Henoko site to accommodate the construction of a replacement facility for the Marine Corps Futenma Air Station.

The local assembly's latest move reflects the sentiments of Okinawa Governor Takeshi Onaga, the majority of the prefecture's officials, as well as the island's citizens, who are staunchly opposed to the base's relocation within the prefecture and wish to see the base moved off the island, or out of Japan, to reduce the tiny island's over-bearing U.S. base-hosting burdens.

The new injunction, which will come into effect at the beginning of November, will require contractors bringing in soil from outside Okinawa to report the specifics of the earth to local officials, such as its origins and composition and what has been described by local media as "countermeasures against alien species ", two months in advance of its planned transportation.

In a further headache for both Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his administration and Washington, Onaga is also likely to repeal the approval for the landfill work, which was previously granted by his predecessor Hirokazu Nakaima, based on a third- party panel finding flaws in Nakaima's landfill prior approval process.

If the flaws are confirmed, Onaga, who has previously expressed his "strong resentment" towards the prime minister's and U.S. President Barack Obama's renewed resolve to forge ahead with the unpopular base move despite the mounting local opposition, will force the central government to take the case to court and try to argue that the correct measures were mandated to protect the local environment of Nago's prestige Henoko coastal region, the site of the new base.

Court action would ensure that the central government will not be able to proceed with its plans to relocate the base, fortifying the southernmost prefecture's campaign against the move and, even if the flaws are revoked, will significantly delay if not derail the central government's contentious plans.

Local media quoted Onaga, who since December has shown his commitment to the local citizens and to preventing the construction of the new U.S. base on the small southern island, even going as far as to take his protest to Washington personally at the end of May, following a frosty face-to-face meeting with Abe during which zero headway was made owing to the governor's unwavering position on the issue, as saying he hoped the ordinance would save the local environment.

While the central government has earmarked plans to purchase more than 20 million square meters of soil from prefectures around the mainland as well as from the island itself, Okinawans and a growing number of citizens from the mainland have taken to the streets to voice their disapproval.

In Japan's capital, for example, there have been a growing number of rallies and protests to the base move recently at the Diet building and at other high-profile locations around Tokyo.

Demonstrators persistently claim that Okinawa and its people made disproportionate sacrifices during World War II compared to the mainland, and, as such, the added burden of relocating the base is hugely inappropriate and wholly unacceptable.

The people of Okinawa do not support the plan to relocate the air base and owing to Onaga, Nago Mayor Susumu Inamine, whose city will potentially host the new airbase and is also a staunch opponent to the relocation, other officials and the public, Washington has voiced its concern that the base's relocation will, once again, be considerably delayed, as has been the case under previous administrations, which has irked the United States as the central government here continues to try and appease its ally by giving its assurances that the relocation and construction of the new base will go ahead as planned.

Ties between Tokyo and Washington could become further strained over the issue as polls show that Abe has failed to sufficiently explain and gain the support of Onaga and the people of Okinawa of the central government's stance on the base's relocation, which is part of a broader realignment of U.S. forces in Japan.

Abe has said that the building of a new base partly on reclaimed land from the waters of Oura Bay in the coastal Henoko region of Okinawa, remains the only solution for the relocation of the Futenma base, but Onaga has repeatedly said the plans are unacceptable and that the government is "overly fixated" on the base's relocation to Henoko as being the only solution and should be "more empathetic" to the base hosting burdens of the Okinawa people.

In 1996, the Japanese and U.S. governments inked an accord to close down the Futenma base, located in the crowded Ginowan district in Okinawa and return land occupied by the facility to Okinawa, with the transfer of the base's function's aimed, partly, at reducing the burden on Okinawa, which already hosts the bulk of U.S. military facilities in Japan.

But the majority of Japanese people, including those on the mainland and on Okinawa island, believe Abe and his administration are terribly mishandling the base relocation issue, with the generality in Japan's southernmost prefecture wanting the new base relocated off the island at a bare minimum, and out of Japan if possible.

Despite Abe and Obama's commitment to relocate the base within the island, as was reconfirmed during a summit between the two leaders in April, the impasse remains between the central and prefectural governments and will be a growing source of concern to Washington who has said the base's relocation should ideally be predicated on the acceptance and understanding of the local people of Okinawa. Endi