Photo/Illutration U.S. Marines disembark from a helicopter during a drill at the Naha military port in Okinawa Prefecture on Feb. 8. (Tadashi Mizowaki)

NAHA—After a nearly half-century impasse, an agreement was reached on the location and shape of a facility that will take over the functions of the U.S. forces’ Naha military port.

The central government, the Okinawa prefectural government, the Naha city government and the Urasoe city government agreed on Oct. 25 that the relocation site would cover around 49 hectares on reclaimed land in a sea area off the west coast of Urasoe.

Full-scale construction work is expected to start soon. The Okinawa prefectural government estimates it will take at least 17 years to complete the new facility.

The Naha military port covers about 56 hectares at a site in Naha that is regarded as an “entrance” to Okinawa Prefecture.

Two years after Okinawa Prefecture was reverted to Japanese control, Tokyo and Washington agreed in 1974 that the Naha military port would be returned to Japan.

But one condition of the deal was the relocation of the Naha port’s functions. Finding a locale willing to accept the new military site proved difficult over the following decades.

In 2013, Japan and the United States agreed that the port in the prefectural capital would be returned to Japan “in or after fiscal 2028.”

The Oct. 25 agreement by the four parties was reached at an online meeting of the “council on the relocation” of the Naha military port.

Only the opening part of the meeting was shown to the general public.

At a previous meeting of the council, the Defense Ministry presented its ideas for the location and shape of the replacement facility to the Naha and Urasoe city governments.

The U.S. side had approved these details before that meeting.

According to an Okinawa prefectural government official, the Oct. 25 agreement concerned the plan presented at the previous meeting.

But Okinawa Prefecture wanted to use the Oct. 25 meeting to stress its demands that the military port’s functions would not be enhanced through the relocation project, the official said.

An agreement reached by the Japan-U.S. Joint Committee said the main purpose of the Naha military port is to ease access to harbor and oil storage facilities.

But in February, the U.S. military conducted a drill involving Osprey transport aircraft at the port.

Residents said the drill went beyond the parameters of the agreement, and concerns grew that the port’s functions could widen at the new site.

The Okinawa prefectural government lodged a protest to the central government about the drill.

At the meeting of the council, too, Okinawa prefectural government officials said U.S. military aircraft must not take off or land at the new facility, and drills should never be conducted there.

In 1995, Japan and the United States decided that the Naha military port would be relocated around 7 kilometers north to Urasoe.

Although the Urasoe mayor in 2001 accepted the relocation plan, the issue was far from settled.

More than a decade later, in the 2013 Urasoe mayoral election, Tetsuji Matsumoto won the race for the first time mainly on his platform of rejecting the relocation plan.

However, Matsumoto later changed his mind and proposed his own idea about hosting the new military facility.

But in August 2020, he scrapped that idea and went along with a relocation plan backed by the Okinawa prefectural government and Naha city government.

Matsumoto is still the mayor of Urasoe.

Despite the agreement reached on Oct. 25, local opposition remains over relocating the military port within Okinawa Prefecture.

Doubts have also been raised about the need for the port’s functions. The U.S. military operates other ports in Okinawa Prefecture, and the Naha port has been described as “idle.”

Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki has said the relocation of the military port “will contribute to Okinawa’s economic growth.” The relocation agreement includes a plan to build a port for private-sector use.

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