THE people of Okinawa felt anger and disappointment over the insistence on promoting the construction of a U.S. military base in the region.
Locals continued to resist and object to the Japanese central government’s plan to build the U.S. Henoko Base, and they had expressed this by filing an appeal to the Supreme Court of Japan— twice.
But on September 4, the Supreme Court again rejected the Okinawa prefectural government’s appeal against the central government’s plan to build the U.S. Henoko Base.
It can be remembered that Japan and the U.S. agreed to move the Futenma Base in Okinawa to the Henoko area of Nago City as early as 1996.
This relocation required land reclamation and two new runways.
Okinawa accounts for 0.6 percent of Japan’s land area, and more than 74 percent of the U.S. military facilities in Japan and more than 70 percent of their military personnel are concentrated in the said prefecture.
107 lawmakers from 24 municipalities united to set up a voluntary group and convened a press conference in Naha City to express their anger and disappointment at the decision of their government.
“For the construction of Henoko Base, people of the Okinawa prefecture clearly expressed their opposition in the prefecture voting and prefecture governor election. But the Supreme Court ignored the will of the people of Okinawa Prefecture, urging Okinawa Prefecture to promote the new base construction. I can’t understand this and feel pity about this,” according to Zukeran Chofu.
Zukeran Chofu, a lawmaker from Nanjo, said that the people of Okinawa are angry at the construction of the Henoko Base, and the people had clearly expressed their opposition in the prefecture voting and prefecture governor election.
The lawmaker also said the Supreme Court ignored the will of the people of Okinawa and instead urged the prefecture to promote the U.S. Hanoko Base.
In February 2019, Okinawa prefecture held a vote among residents on whether to approve the construction of the new U.S. military base in Henoko.
As a result, more than 70 percent of residents expressed opposition.
In April 2020, the Japanese government requested the Okinawa prefectural government to change the design due to serious problems, such as soft soil, were discovered during the construction process.
The Okinawa prefecture government said that the technical problems were difficult to solve and asked the upper level to stop the construction and appealed to the Supreme Court of Japan.
However, the Supreme Court ultimately rejected the Okinawa prefecture government’s appeal.
Takayama Yuzo, a lawmaker from Nago, said that they raised technical issues, but the Supreme Court ignored them.
The lawmaker then accused the Okinawa defense bureau of abusing the Administrative Complaint Review Act, which he said was created to assist individuals.
According to the lawmaker, this caused the Okinawa government to lose its lawsuit against the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.
“We raised technical issues but the Supreme Court simply ignored this. The Administrative Complaint Review Act is actually to assist individuals, but the Okinawa Defense Bureau, an administrative agency, abused this act, which caused the Okinawa government to lose its lawsuit against the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism,” Takayama Yuzo said.
Another lawmaker, Yumi Nakasone, from Chatan-Cho, claimed that the Japanese government has been forcibly promoting the construction of the new U.S. base.
“No matter how many times we, the people of Okinawa, try to make our voice heard, the Japanese government has still been forcibly promoting the construction of the new base. History is about to be written like this. In this context where democracy is being destroyed and the state is forcing Okinawa to obey, we, the people of Okinawa prefecture, will never give in. We want to leave a history of struggle,” Yumi Nakasone said.
