But he said Tokyo would continue discussions with Okinawa to reach a settlement.
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The central government also says the relocation plan is meant to address safety concerns for residents living near the base. The permit allows for the landfill of a portion of Oura Bay just offshore from Camp Schwab in Okinawa’s remote north for a new runway to be used by the USA military.
The relocation plan can be traced back to 1995 as furor erupted on the tiny island prefecture over the kidnapping and rape of an Okinawa girl by two Marines and a Navy corpsman. The banner reads: We don’t need Osprey helipads in the forest of Yanbaru in Takae village. But the attempt to build a replacement facility in the prefecture has drawn objections from the Okinawa government and locals in a prefecture that hosts the bulk of USA military facilities in Japan even after it reverted to Japanese rule in 1972.
The controversy resurfaced recently when Japan’s government tried to resume construction of the helipads after the relocation of a higher-profile Marine air station also was stalled.
According to the Kyodo news agency, the Naha branch of the Fukuoka High Court made a ruling that Okinawa’s former government had legally provided the land for relocation of the U.S. air base from Okinawa’s highly-populated district in the city of Ginowan to the Henoko coastal area of Nago city. Opposition lawmakers and activists Thursda.
Hundreds of riot police have been brought in from outside Okinawa since mid-July and have forcibly removed opponents’ tents and barricades and clashed with protesters and residents, resulting in some injuries and arrests. The U.S. Marine Corps helipads in Okinawa are needed for the partial return of a U.S. training base to the island.
Okinawa, which was an independent kingdom until its 1879 annexation by Japan, has faced discrimination by the central government and mainland Japanese, many residents say.
More than half the 47,000 American troops in Japan under a decades-long security alliance are stationed on Okinawa, the site of a major World War II battle that was followed by a 27-year USA occupation of the island.
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Tokyo wants to move the unpopular USA airbase in a crowded residential district on Okinawa to a sparsely populated area in its north, but many locals want the base moved off the island altogether. “Okinawa is not treated as an equal of the rest of Japan”.
