Earth Filling to Begin at Planned U.S. Base Site in Henoko

June 8, 2018

Naha, Okinawa Pref.- The Japanese government plans to start earth-filling work at a planned U.S. military base site in the Henoko coastal area in Okinawa Prefecture in mid-August at the earliest, officials said Thursday.

The move will make it far more difficult to restore the site to its original state. Okinawa Governor Takeshi Onaga is expected to take a fresh step to block the base construction.

In April last year, the Okinawa Defense Bureau of the Defense Ministry began work to build seawalls around the planned base site.

The earth-filling work will be carried out in an area near the tip of Cape Henoko, the officials said, adding that seawalls that surround the area are expected to be completed around next month.

The bureau will shortly notify the Okinawa government of the plans for earth filling, on which they started prior talks last month under a local ordinance to prevent the outflow of red clay and other substances to the sea.

The prefecture will examine whether the earth-filling plans are appropriate under the ordinance. But it has no authority to order the central government to revise the plans.

Onaga has expressed his readiness to revoke the prefecture's approval for land reclamation in Henoko, issued by his predecessor. The governor apparently hopes to take this action by citing insufficient environmental preservation measures.

The central government is likely to file a lawsuit to counter Onaga's possible revocation. "The landfill work, even if suspended, would be restarted in two or three weeks," a government official said. Jiji Press