2011: “Unacceptable and Unendurable:” Okinawa Mayor

Okinawa
Source:  The Asia-Pacific Journal | Japan Focus Volume 9 | Issue 42 | Number 2 | Oct 21, 2011

“Unacceptable and Unendurable:” Local Okinawa Mayor Says NO to US Marine Base Plan  
稲嶺進名護市長 沖縄への過重負担は「許容の範囲、受忍の範囲を通り越している」
Miyagi Yasuhiro

"The Futenma Marine Corps Base in Okinawa’s Ginowan, often described as the most dangerous in the world, is situated in the midst of a densely populated area and has been the site of multiple accidents and clashes between the US military and Okinawans. The Japan-US agreement to have Henoko Village in Okinawa prefecture’s Nago City as the site to transfer the Futenma Marine Corps Base when it is returned to Okinawa, dates back to the Special Action Committee on Okinawa (SACO) Agreement of 1996. Yet the issue of building a new base has been contested for fifteen years. Okinawa agreed to the transfer in 1999, albeit subject to several conditions, but a Japan-US agreement that was reached in 2005 to build the base on an enlarged scale ignored Okinawan conditions.1

The Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) government in 2010, after reconsidering the Japan-US agreements, agreed on the same site. But popular will against relocating the Futenma base within Okinawa is so strong that the possibility of Okinawan acceptance of the Japan-US Agreement is virtually zero. I asked the Mayor of Nago City, site of the controversial planned base, for his honest opinion. ..."

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