For nearly three decades, Washington and Tokyo have pledged to close a controversial US airbase in Okinawa, located in the middle of a densely populated island. But the plan is now facing new uncertainty.
The US military would not return its Futenma airbase to Japanese control until Tokyo builds a longer runway than the one being built at a replacement site in the northeast of Okinawa prefecture, according to a report.
Japan’s national broadcaster NHK reported on Wednesday that the US Department of Defence had informed the Government Accountability Office, a US congressional audit body, that Marine Corps Air Station Futenma would not be handed back until its operational requirements were fully met.If the United States refuses to relocate its forces to the new facility at Henoko, the already long-delayed transfer could face further setbacks – a scenario analysts say risks reigniting local opposition to the American military presence and complicating broader US-Japan plans to realign forces across the Indo-Pacific.
Futenma currently has a single runway measuring 2.74km (1.7 miles). The replacement facility at Camp Schwab, in the village of Henoko, is designed to feature two V-shaped runways, each 1.8km long, once offshore reclamation and construction works are completed.
Proposals to close Futenma date back five decades but gained traction only in the late 1990s, when Henoko was identified as the replacement site. Critics have long described Futenma as the world’s most dangerous airfield, as many residents live in its immediate vicinity.