By SUNAO GUSHIKEN/ Staff Writer
November 29, 2022 at 19:01 JST
An aerial view of Mageshima island (Eiji Hori)
NISHINOOMOTE, Kagoshima Prefecture--Governor Koichi Shiota is signaling his approval of the central government’s controversial plan to build a new Self-Defense Forces base on Mageshima island and relocate where the U.S. military trains its pilots.
Shiota publicly expressed his acceptance of the plan for Mageshima island, which is part of the municipality of Nishinoomote, at a prefectural assembly meeting on Nov. 29.
“Partly because the security environment is deteriorating further, following comprehensive consideration, I concluded that our prefecture has to give understanding to the government’s plan to build a Self-Defense Forces base on Mageshima island,” Shiota told the assembly.
Meanwhile, Nishinoomote Mayor Shunsuke Yaita, who had staunchly opposed the plan during his election campaign last year, has more recently softened his hard-line stance on the issue. Sources say Yaita will soon publicly declare he supports it as well.
The Defense Ministry put together its draft environmental impact assessment of the plan on Nov. 22, which signaled to both levels of government that it will act in accordance with the governor’s requests--including one related to concerns about noise from the SDF base.
After this, Shiota and Yaita met on Nov. 25 and said they think the government’s response to their requests are “sincere.”
The two men suggested they would announce their positions on the plan in the coming days and stressed that they are on the same page.
Accepting the plan would be a major reversal for Yaita, who won re-election in January 2021 vowing to oppose any U.S. military use of Mageshima island.
The mayor has already stirred up the ire of locals. A group of Nishinoomote residents opposed to the plan is accusing him of flip-flopping and is actively trying to get him recalled.
“I am responding to actual progress (of the plan) while always being conscious of my platform,” Yaita said at a Nov. 29 meeting of the Nishinoomote city assembly.
He sought understanding from voters by saying that his priority is “to do my best to enable Nishinoomote’s residents to feel safe and secure, and dispel their anxiety about (the plan).”
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