TOKYO, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) -- Japan's central government on Wednesday asked the land and infrastructure minister to repeal a decision by Okinawa Gov. Takeshi Onaga to revoke prior approval given for landfill work in connection to the relocation of a controversial U.S. airbase within Okinawa.
Keiichi Ishii, the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Minister, received the request from the Okinawa chapter of Japan' s defense bureau to nullify Onaga's decision made Tuesday to revoke approval for landfill work necessary to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma from the densely populated region of Ginowan, to the coastal region of Henoko, also on Okinawa island.
Onaga, a staunch opponent to the central government's plans to relocate the airbase within Japan's southernmost prefecture, said Tuesday the decision to revoke approval, initially green-lit by his predecessor Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima, was based on grounds that there were defects in the original permit granted for the refill work.
If Ishii sides with the central government and opts to invalidate Onaga's rescinding of the permit, sources with knowledge of the matter said Wednesday the central government's peripheral work to relocate the contentious airbase and reclaim land from Oura Bay in the coastal Henoko region of Okinawa will continue.
But Onaga and Okinawa's prefectural officials will likely look to block such measures by taking the case to court, with Onaga telling a press briefing he was hugely disappointed by the latest moves by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's administration to force the base's relocation on an island population already overburdened with hosting the bulk of U.S. military forces. "The government requested the examination a day after we notified the revocation. This clearly shows the government's hard- line stance to set up a new base in Okinawa anyway and it is extremely regrettable," Onaga was quoted as telling local media Wednesday.
Okinawa's defense bureau, under the auspices of the Defense Ministry, for its part, said seeking to invalidate the revocation of the permit was required to"stop Onaga's move in order to avoid serious repercussions, such as a delay in removing risks associated with the Futenma air base, as well as the adverse effect on trust between Japan and the United States."
The ongoing impasse has irked the United States, as the central government continues to try and appease its ally by giving its assurances that the relocation and construction of the new base will go ahead as per a previous bilateral agreement between the two countries, but ties between Tokyo and Washington could become further strained over the issue as polls show that Abe has failed to sufficiently explain and gain the support of Onaga and the people of Okinawa of the central government's stance on the base' s relocation despite recent intensive talks on the issue.
Abe, whose popularity plummeted following his forcing of unconstitutional war bills into law recently in a bid to expand the nation's military scope, has said that the building of a new base partly on reclaimed land from the waters of Oura Bay in the coastal Henoko region of Okinawa, remains the only solution for the relocation of the Futenma base.
Tokyo's pledge to Washington to relocate the base within the island, as was reconfirmed during a summit between Abe and U.S. President Barack Obama will, however, be a growing source of concern to the U.S. side, who has said that the base's relocation should ideally be predicated on the acceptance and understanding of the local people of Okinawa.
But in addition to prefectural officials, the people of Okinawa wish to see the base relocated outside the prefecture at a bare minimum and ideally out of Japan all together. Okinawan people have been vociferous of late in their opposition to their ongoing base hosting burdens and are calling for the Abe government to better understand the immeasurable suffering that was inflicted on them by the central government during and after WWII.
The current impasse between the central and prefectural government will likely rumble on for some time. If a temporary injunction against Onaga is rejected, the land ministry will likely deliberate whether or not to completely nullify Okinawa's move for a month or longer, sources familiar with the case said Wednesday.
Onaga, who has previously expressed his"strong resentment" towards Abe and Obama's renewed resolve to forge ahead with the unpopular base move, despite the mounting local opposition, is gearing up for the case to be taken to court, where the central government will have to prove that correct measures were mandated to protect the local environment of Nago's pristine Henoko coastal region.
Court action, as sources have confirmed, will ensure that the central government will not be able to proceed with its plans to relocate the base, fortifying the southernmost prefecture's campaign against the move and, even if the flaws are revoked, will significantly delay if not derail the central government's contentious plans.
The central government, for its part, will likely step up its campaign by ordering the cancellation of Onaga's legal move under the prefecture's autonomy law, while the defense bureau will continue to lean on the land ministry to probe the case with the hope of it issuing a suspension to the rescinding, sources have said.
Regardless, officials and locals in Okinawa are universally opposed to the move, which alone is the biggest obstacle the central government is facing and has failed to deal with in its plans to relocate the controversial base.
