Okinawa Sues State to Block Futenma Base Relocation
Jiji Press NAHA (Jiji Press) — The prefectural government of Okinawa filed a lawsuit against the state on Friday to block land reclamation for the planned relocation of a controversial U.S. base within the prefecture, bringing the state-prefecture dispute deeper into a quagmire.
The latest action came after a third-party panel of the internal affairs ministry decided at an overnight meeting through early Friday to dismiss a request by Okinawa Gov. Takeshi Onaga for a review of the dispute over the reclamation.
Land minister Keiichi Ishii in late October suspended Onaga’s decision earlier in the month to revoke his predecessor’s permission in December 2013 for landfill in the Henoko coastal area of Okinawa’s Nago, where a replacement facility for the U.S. Marine Corps’ Air Station Futenma is planned to be built.
The governor and many other local residents want the Futenma base, currently located in a congested area of Okinawa’s Ginowan, to be moved out of the prefecture.
In its written complaint submitted to the Naha District Court on Friday, the prefectural government claimed that the land minister’s suspension of the governor’s decision is illegal and that the governor’s revocation should be reinstated.
The prefecture also asked the court to issue a provisional injunction suspending the land minister’s decision until it issues a ruling in the just-raised suit.
In November, meanwhile, the central government sued the prefecture, claiming that Onaga’s revocation of the landfill approval given by then Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima is illegal.
Following the land minister’s decision to suspend the revocation by Onaga, the Defense Ministry’s Okinawa Defense Bureau resumed relocation work in Henoko, amid persistent resistance from local residents.
At a news conference Friday, Onaga said the latest lawsuit is “an effective course of action to block the Okinawa Defense Bureau’s reclamation work.”
In the complaint, the Okinawa government criticized the state as jeopardizing the prefecture’s autonomy. It argued that the land reclamation will violate the prefecture’s interests, such as the residents’ lives and the natural environment, guaranteed by the relevant law.
Environmental damage from the planned base construction in Henoko would be too significant to be repaired, the prefecture said. The relocation work should be stopped immediately, it added, seeking a provisional injunction against the land minister’s decision.
Initially, the prefecture planned to raise the lawsuit early next year. But it put forward the plan after the decision by the internal affairs ministry panel to dismiss the Okinawa governor’s request for a review of the land minister’s suspension of the cancellation of the landfill permit.Speech