Okinawa governor presses Abe to give up Henoko base construction

March 1, 2019

Tokyo--Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki pressed Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in person on Friday to give up a controversial plan to relocate a U.S. military base within the southern Japan prefecture, after Okinawa voters rejected it in a recent referendum. 

"The directly shown will of the people has greater weight than anything else and must be respected," Tamaki said to Abe when he visited the prime minister's office in Tokyo to convey the voting results.

"I want you to go ahead and accept the thinking of people in Okinawa, moving immediately to stop the construction work," the governor said of the relocation plan.

More than 70 pct of voters who cast ballots in the referendum on Sunday opposed the central government's plan to move the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma air base, now in Ginowan, Okinawa, to a replacement facility to be built in the Henoko coastal area of Nago in the same prefecture. The plan is based on a Japan-U.S. agreement.

Okinawa Prefecture has been demanding that the Futenma base be moved out of the prefecture.

"By sincerely accepting the outcome of the referendum, we want to produce results one by one in our efforts to reduce Okinawa's burden" of hosting U.S. military bases, Abe said.

At the same time, the prime minister stressed Tokyo's resolve to move forward with the relocation plan, saying, "We cannot leave the Futenma base entrenched in a dangerous state."

The Futenma base is said to be the world's most dangerous air field because it is located in an area densely packed with houses.

Elsewhere in the meeting with Abe, Tamaki proposed creating a framework for three-way dialogue among Tokyo, Washington and Okinawa.

But Abe avoided giving a clear reply to the proposal.

The referendum asked voters if they support or oppose the landfill work needed for building a replacement facility in Henoko for the Futenma base, while giving them a third option of "neither."

The results of the referendum have no legally binding power. Still, under the prefectural ordinance on the referendum, if the most popular of the three options is backed by a quarter or more of all eligible voters in Okinawa, the governor must inform the Japanese prime minister and the U.S. president of the results.

The votes of opposition substantially surpassed a quarter of all eligible voters in Okinawa.

Before meeting with Abe, Tamaki held talks with Joseph Young, deputy chief of mission at the U.S. embassy in Tokyo. Jiji Press