Okinawa Assembly protests US Osprey operations

August 28, 2017

NAHA, OKINAWA PREF.- The Okinawa prefectural assembly adopted Monday a resolution demanding the withdrawal of the US Marine Corps and its MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft from the southernmost Japan prefecture, protesting the recent deadly crash of an Osprey military transporter.

The resolution and a related position document were approved by a majority vote with support mainly from the ruling parties in the assembly--the Japanese Communist Party and the Social Democratic Party.

The protest resolution, proposed by the ruling parties, denounced the US forces' resumption of Osprey flights after the crash off eastern Australia in early August of an Osprey plane deployed to Okinawa, despite the Japanese government's request for a flight suspension.

The assembly cannot help but be angry over the US military for continuing to ignore the voices of local residents on the grounds of operational necessity, the resolution said. It urged the Japanese and US governments to ease the prefecture's burden of hosting US bases.

The Liberal Democratic Party, an opposition force in the prefectural assembly, submitted a draft resolution demanding efforts to determine the cause of the accident and a flight halt until the Osprey's safety is confirmed, while making no reference to the advisability of the Osprey deployment to Okinawa.

The assembly stopped short of taking a vote on the LDP-proposed draft resolution. Jiji Press