Ministry panel again rejects Okinawa’s claim against Henoko landfill

June 17, 2019

Tokyo--A third-party panel on Monday dismissed the Okinawa prefectural government's claim that it was illegal for land minister Keiichi Ishii in April to invalidate the prefecture's revocation of its earlier approval for landfilling at a planned U.S. base site in the Henoko coastal area in Nago, a city in the southern Japan prefecture.

The Central and Local Government Dispute Management Council, under the internal affairs ministry, took the decision unanimously, deeming the prefectural claim unfit for examination.

The decision came after the same panel rejected in February the prefecture's claim that it was illegal for the minister last October "to suspend" the cancellation, made by the prefecture in August, of the approval for the landfilling for the relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma air station, now in Ginowan, another city in Okinawa.

The panel's chairman, Kazuhiro Tomikoshi, former chief of Tokyo High Court, told a press conference that the logic behind the latest decision was the same as with the February ruling.

"It is inappropriate to file such a claim" with the panel, Tomikoshi said.

The prefecture is expected to consider its response to this latest decision. It may choose to bring the case to Fukuoka High Court's branch in Naha, the capital of Okinawa. Jiji Press