Okinawa’s claim for injunction against landfill for US base dismissed

March 14, 2018

Naha, Okinawa Pref.- Naha District Court on Tuesday dismissed Okinawa Prefecture's claim for an injunction against the Japanese government's landfill work for a planned US base in the Henoko coastal area in the southernmost Japan prefecture.

The court supported the central government's position that such an administrative case is not subject to a court ruling, citing a related legal view established by the Supreme Court.

The local court stopped short of judging whether fishing rights exist in the planned landfill area in the Henoko district, a key point of dispute between the central and prefectural governments.

Okinawa Governor Takeshi Onaga is now expected to consider appealing to a higher court or taking another possible option to block the landfill work.

In the lawsuit, the prefectural government argued that it is illegal for the central government to proceed with the landfill work without the prefecture's permission for coral destruction in the area where fishing rights exist and are managed under prefectural rules.

The prefectural rules stipulate that it is necessary to obtain permission from the governor of Okinawa before changing seabed topography in areas with fishing rights.

The central government launched landfill work in the Henoko area in the city of Nago in April 2017, after a local fishermen's association partially abandoned its fishing rights in November 2016.

The central government insisted that as fishing rights had disappeared in Henoko, it did not need to gain the governor's permission. But the prefecture claimed that fishing rights continued to exist there as proper procedures for the partial abandonment had not been taken.

In Henoko, a replacement facility for the US Marine Corps' Futenma air base in the Okinawa city of Ginowan is planned to be constructed under an agreement between the Japanese and US governments.

Leading local opposition to the US base relocation within the prefecture, Onaga, who won his first term as Okinawa governor in November 2014, revoked in October the following year the reclamation work approval given to the central government by his predecessor, Hirokazu Nakaima, in December 2013.

In December 2016, the Supreme Court ruled against Onaga's revocation of the landfill approval, saying that there was no illegality in Nakaima's decision to approve the reclamation.

Despite the top court's ruling, the current governor still has the option of reversing the landfill approval by citing circumstances that have arisen since the permission was given. Jiji Press