Photo/Illutration Defense Minister Minoru Kihara, left, meets with Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki in Naha on Feb. 17. (Nen Satomi)

NAHA--Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki called on Defense Minister Minoru Kihara to retract plans to build a Self-Defense Force training site in his prefecture as the central government moves to bolster defenses in the nation’s southwestern islands.

“We cannot agree with the project,” Tamaki told Kihara at the Okinawa prefectural government office here Feb. 17 during a meeting that lasted less than 30 minutes. “We want the government to take the plan back to the drawing board and review it.”

The Defense Buildup Program, one of the three national security documents the government adopted in 2022, calls for enhancing SDF capabilities in southwestern Japan, centered around Okinawa Prefecture, due to China’s growing presence in the East China Sea.

The document said the Ground SDF’s 15th Brigade, which is based in Naha and comprises around 2,000 members, will be reorganized into a division.

The GSDF plans to open a new training ground in Uruma, Okinawa Prefecture, to handle the range of exercises required for the expanded division.

“In the face of the most severe and complicated security environment Japan has faced after World War II, we can lose no time in drastically reinforcing our defense capabilities based on the three national security documents,” Kihara told Tamaki during the meeting.

The proposed training site lies next to a residential area.

Residents are concerned about noise issues and the potential for accidents. Neighborhood community associations had already called for scrapping the project.

The meeting with Kihara marked the first time for Tamaki to publicly express his opposition to the project.

“The government has been hastily pressing everything forward particularly after it published the three security documents,” Tamaki told reporters after the meeting. “Anxiety among many prefectural residents is only growing, not subsiding.”

Before his meeting with Tamaki, Kihara sat down for talks with the heads of 11 municipalities in Okinawa Prefecture that host U.S. military bases.

Uruma Mayor Masato Nakamura told Kihara, “We want the central government to take the voices of local residents seriously and give careful consideration to the issue.”

Tamaki and Kihara also remained far apart over the project to relocate the U.S. Marine Corp Air Station Futenma in Ginowan, Okinawa Prefecture, to Nago, also in the prefecture.

While Tamaki renewed his call for suspending reclamation work, Kihara stressed that the government would forge ahead with the divisive project.

The Defense Ministry started reclamation work in Oura Bay north of Henoko Point in Nago in January after land minister Tetsuo Saito approved design changes by proxy the previous month, overriding Tamaki’s refusal to sign off on the modifications.

During the meeting, Tamaki called for convening a session of the Futenma air station burden reduction promotion council, which would bring together Kihara, Tamaki, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi, Ginowan Mayor Masanori Matsugawa and others.

The meeting was last held five years ago.

But Kihara said working-level officials will discuss the issue at a working group under the council.

“We renewed our determination to produce solid results toward reducing Okinawa’s base burden and drastically reinforcing defense capabilities in the southwestern region,” Kihara told reporters after the meeting.

Kihara’s visit was his first to Okinawa’s main island since taking office in September, which is exceptionally overdue for a newly appointed defense minister.

He visited Miyakojima and Ishigakijima, two islands in Okinawa Prefecture, in September to inspect GSDF units deployed at camps that opened in 2019 and March 2023, respectively.

Kihara met with Tamaki, who has consistently called for easing the U.S. bases burden borne by his prefecture, for the first time at the Defense Ministry in Tokyo in January.

(This article was compiled from reports by Nen Satomi, Taro Ono and Satsuki Tanahashi.)

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