Photo/Illutration Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki speaks with reporters in Naha on March 1. (Taro Ono)

The Okinawa prefectural government appears to have exhausted its legal options to stop land reclamation work in an area of soft seabed off the coast of Nago, Okinawa Prefecture, for a new U.S. military base.

Ignoring widespread opposition in Okinawa to the project, the central government is forging ahead with the land reclamation work to fulfill a pledge to eventually relocate the sprawling U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma from its current location, a heavily urban area of Ginowan, also in Okinawa.

The Supreme Court’s First Petty Bench rejected an appeal by the Okinawa prefectural government of a decision in December by the Naha branch of the Fukuoka High Court approving the use of administrative subrogation by the central government to approve a design change application for land reclamation work off the Henoko district.

The Okinawa government refused to approve the change, so the land minister resorted to administrative subrogation on behalf of the Okinawa prefectural government and approved the design change in December.

Land reclamation work began in January and it would have stopped only if the Supreme Court had ruled in favor of Okinawa.

But in a ruling dated Feb. 29, the Supreme Court only said no precedents had been violated in rejecting the appeal by the prefectural government.

Speaking with reporters in Naha on March 1, Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki expressed disappointment that the judicial branch did not issue a specific ruling overturning the administrative subrogation, but simply rejected the appeal.

(This article was written by Takashi Endo and Taro Ono.)

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