By SHOGO MITSUZUMI/ Staff Writer
December 14, 2022 at 17:54 JST
Land reclamation off the southern part of the Henoko district of Nago in Okinawa Prefecture is now complete, but construction work in the area to the north remains suspended due to the discovery of soft seabed. (Eiji Hori)
NAGO, Okinawa Prefecture--A messy government reclamation project for a new U.S. military base here that has inflamed residents of Okinawa Prefecture entered its fifth year Dec. 14, with no breakthrough in sight.
Most Okinawans complain the southernmost prefecture is forced to shoulder an unfair burden as it hosts 70 percent of all U.S. military facilities in Japan.
Despite fierce local opposition, the central government refuses to consider an alternative plan, even in the face of spiraling construction costs and no firm date for completion of the project.
Governor Denny Tamaki, a staunch opponent of the project, was re-elected in September, and is fighting to bring a halt to the reclamation work for a new facility off the Henoko district of Nago that would take over the functions of the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Ginowan in the prefecture.
Construction work also stalled significantly after an expanse of weak seabed was discovered in the planned reclamation area.
Initially, Tokyo and Washington agreed on the return of the land occupied by the Futenma base in fiscal 2022 or later.
A 39-hectare portion of the landfill has been completed to date.
But the future of the remaining 111-hectare segment remains murky due to the state of the fragile seabed. Experts have raised concerns about the technical feasibility of the project and ballooning costs.
The central government must gain approval from the Okinawa prefectural government for a change in the design of the landfill project following the discovery of the soft seabed.
But Tamaki rejected the central government’s application for the design change in November 2021.
The central and Okinawa prefectural governments are fighting a new court battle, this time over Tamaki’s refusal to approve the design change. The relocation of the Futenma base is expected to take another 12 years if the governor is forced to back down.
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