Soil Placement for U.S. Base Relocation in Okinawa to Start Dec. 14

December 3, 2018

Tokyo--Japanese Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya said Monday the government will start the placement of soil in landfill work off the Henoko coastal district in Nago, Okinawa Prefecture, on Dec. 14 in a controversial U.S. military base relocation project.

Since it would be difficult to restore the original state of the site once the soil placement work starts, the government's decision is widely expected to escalate the Tokyo-Okinawa conflict over the project to move the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma air base, currently in a densely populated district in Ginowan,

Okinawa, to a replacement facility to be built off Henoko.

The Okinawa government is demanding that the base be moved out of the southernmost Japan prefecture.

Iwaya told reporters that his ministry's Okinawa Defense Bureau submitted to the Okinawa prefectural government on Monday a document setting out a plan to start the soil placement on Dec. 14.

Initially, soil for land reclamation was planned to be carried from a port in the town of Motobu in northern Okinawa.

As the central government has yet to obtain the town's approval to use the port, however, it started loading soil onto a ship anchored at a private-sector facility in Nago on Monday, according to Iwaya.

The start of the soil placement work may be delayed depending on weather conditions.

"Under our basic policy to reduce the burden on Okinawa while maintaining deterrent capabilities, we want to move forward with the construction work to realize the transfer and the return of the Futenma base as soon as possible," Iwaya said.

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a press conference, "We hope the work will progress while safety is fully ensured and the utmost consideration is given to the natural and living environment."

In November, the central and Okinawa governments discussed the base relocation plan but failed to work out their differences.

After that, the Okinawa government filed a complaint with a third-party dispute settlement committee affiliated with the internal affairs ministry over land minister Keiichi Ishii's decision to temporarily suspend Okinawa's revocation of its approval for landfill work at Henoko. The prefecture claimed that the land minister's move was illegal.

On Feb. 24 next year, Okinawa plans to hold a referendum on the base relocation plan.

Observers said the central government is in a rush to start the soil placement work at Henoko because it wants to create an accomplished fact before the referendum in Okinawa. Jiji Press