Thirty years have passed since Tokyo and Washington agreed to the full reversion of US Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Ginowan, Okinawa Prefecture, on the condition that the base would be relocated elsewhere.
The agreement was secured on April 12, 1996, under then Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto. In 1999, the Cabinet approved relocating the base to Henoko in Nago. That anniversary fell a few days ago.
Back then, the goal was to return the base to Japan within five to seven years. Yet even now, the deal remains unrealized.
One major reason is Okinawa Prefecture’s long-standing opposition to relocating Futenma to Henoko, with talks over construction methods and other details soon bogging down.
No Room for Obstruction
Tokyo and Washington have repeatedly affirmed that relocating Henoko is the only viable solution to preserving the deterrent power of the Japan-US alliance while eliminating the dangers posed by an air station in the middle of a densely populated residential area.
Above all, this matter falls squarely within the foreign and security policy of the national government. A prefectural government has no business trying to upend it.
Then-Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto (left) and then US Ambassador to Japan Walter Mondale announce at a joint press conference in April 1996 at the Prime Minister’s Office that they had agreed on the full return of US Marine Corps Air Station Futenma. (©Prime Minister’s Office)
Governor Denny Tamaki of Okinawa should therefore drop his opposition and help expedite Futenma’s return by moving forward with the relocation.
The then-Yukio Hatoyama administration of the Democratic Party, which took office in 2009, also bears heavy responsibility. It tried to scrap the Henoko plan and search for an alternative site outside Okinawa, only to drift aimlessly before capitulating.
The whole gambit was a reckless fiasco that rattled the foundations of the bilateral alliance.
Governor Denny Tamaki inspects the construction site in Henoko, Nago City, Okinawa Prefecture, where the US Marine Corps Air Station Futenma will be relocated on May 19, 2023. (©Kyodo)
Opposition Without End
Even after the Democratic Party government fell in 2012, Okinawa’s hard-line resistance never let up.
In 2015, then-Governor Takeshi Onaga of Okinawa, who died in 2018, revoked approval for the landfill work off Henoko, plunging the central and prefectural governments into a protracted legal battle.
Although the prefecture lost in court, Onaga’s successor, incumbent Denny Tamaki, has continued to withhold approval, significantly delaying the relocation work.
Nor has the prefectural government done nearly enough to rein in the dangerous tactics of anti-base protesters.
In March this year, two boats operated by protesters capsized off Henoko, leaving two on board, including a high school student, dead.
Then-US President Barack Obama (left) shakes hands with then-Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama ahead of their meeting in November 2009 at the Prime Minister’s Office. (©Sankei/Shunsuke Sakamaki)
No Time for Delay
Over these past 30 years, the security environment surrounding Japan has only grown more severe. China has pressed ahead with a massive military buildup and repeatedly intrudes into Japanese territorial waters around the Senkaku Islands in Ishigaki City.
Fears of a Taiwan contingency are also rising. If Japan, Okinawa included, is to be defended to the end, the relocation to Henoko must be carried through.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said in her first policy speech after taking office last October that she would “press ahead with the relocation work to Henoko to secure the full return [of Futenma] as soon as possible.”
If the prefectural government cooperated rather than obstructed, Futenma could be returned sooner.
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Author: Editorial Board, The Sankei Shimbun
(Read the article in Japanese)
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