Japan gov't amps up pressure on Okinawa to allow landfill work for unpopular U.S. base move

The central government on Monday has stepped up its pressure on Okinawa Governor Takeshi Onaga to retract his rescinding of a permit granting approval for landfill work connected to the relocation of a controversial U.S. air base on Okinawa island.

Land minister Keiichi Ishii on Monday said following issuing Onaga with a "recommendation" to withdraw his retraction, he had now issued Onaga with a letter "instructing" him to do so, as the standoff between the central government and the local prefectural government in Okinawa, over the relocating of the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma from the densely populated region of Ginowan, to the coastal region of Henoko, also on Okinawa island, continues to intensify.

The central government following its latest move, looks set to take the case to court assuming that Onaga, as he has previously stated would be the case, continues to refuse to retract his earlier revocation of the approval. The likelihood is the central government will now file a lawsuit with the High Court as early as this month.

Onaga, along with other prefectural officials, as well as the locals of Japan's southernmost prefecture, remain staunchly opposed to the relocation plan made between Japan and the United States and wish for the base to be relocated off the island or out of Japan altogether.

The Okinawa governor has stated that he cannot comply with the land minister's recommendation because the original approval given by his predecessor for the landfill work contained faults and hence his moves to revoke it were lawful.

Onaga himself sent a letter to Ishii to make him aware of his decision not to retract his revocation and in the letter queried Ishii's decision to suspend his revocation of the approval for the landfill work.

"I have been infuriated by the central government's heavy-handed tactics in dealing with the matter," Onaga said, including its deploying of a special police riot squad team from Tokyo to help the local police guard the site of the new base, which has seen protesters, largely elderly, trying to block trucks from entering the construction site by staging a sit-in.

He said the central government is doing "whatever it takes" to proceed with the relocation, such as by sending in riot police officers of the Metropolitan Police Department in "massive numbers."

If the case ends up in the High Court, the Okinawa prefectural government will seek to have the land minister's decision invalidated, in a further headache for Tokyo who has guaranteed Washington the relocation will go ahead as per a previous bilateral accord.

The constant wrangling between Tokyo and Okinawa has been an ongoing sources of irritation for the U.S. who have been assured by Abe the relocation would go ahead smoothly and with the support of the locals on the island.

Onaga has said the central government, despite its pledges to Washington that it would do its utmost to gain the understanding of the people of Okinawa about its plans to relocate the base, had blatantly shown it has no such intentions.

The government keeps saying they're "dedicated to considering the feelings of the Okinawan people," but based on their actions, they clearly have "no such intention," Onaga said, adding that that the central government was not only acting in its own interests, but on the fringes of the law.

Onaga was elected in November last year on a pledge to oppose the relocation of the controversial base within Okinawa, defeating his predecessor Hirokazu Nakaima who had granted the approval for the Henoko landfill work.

If the case goes to the High Court, it will mark the fist time in 15 years the central government has gone to such lengths to browbeat a far smaller prefectural government. Endit