Okinawa vote not to affect U.S. base relocation work: Abe

February 21, 2019

Tokyo--The Japanese government will continue work related to a U.S. base relocation within Okinawa Prefecture regardless of the results of a prefectural referendum on the issue, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe indicated Wednesday.

Speaking in a House of Representatives Budget Committee meeting, Abe showed his support for a remark to the same effect made by Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga on Thursday.

Suga said the government basically intends to continue the work needed to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma air station in Ginowan to the Henoko coastal district in Nago regardless of the results of Sunday's referendum in the southernmost Japan prefecture.

Kenji Eda, a member of the parliamentary group led by the opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, asked Abe about his view on Suga's remark during the Lower House meeting.

Abe declined to comment directly on the referendum but said that Suga expressed the government's opinion.

Regarding the recent South Korean Supreme Court decisions ordering Japanese companies to pay compensation for wartime labor, Foreign Minister Taro Kono said he expects South Korea to respond sincerely to a Japanese request for discussions on the issue.

"But we'll need to take measures" if South Korea does not do this, Kono told the committee meeting. He suggested that the government will demand South Korea accept the establishment of an arbitration panel based on the 1965 bilateral accord on property claims if South Korean plaintiffs sell assets of any of the Japanese companies in the lawsuits.Jiji Press