{"id":2876,"date":"2026-04-10T15:39:53","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T15:39:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/2876\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T15:39:53","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T15:39:53","slug":"work-on-marine-corps-airfield-in-northern-okinawa-resumes-after-4-month-pause","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/2876\/","title":{"rendered":"Work on Marine Corps airfield in northern Okinawa resumes after 4-month pause"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\"A<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\tA construction vessel works at the site of a future Marine Corps airfield in Oura Bay at Camp Schwab, Okinawa, on Oct. 2, 2025. (Ryan M. Breeden\/Stars and Stripes)
\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

CAMP SCHWAB, Okinawa \u2014 Work on a new Marine Corps airfield in northern Okinawa has resumed after a four-month pause<\/a> due to weather concerns, with no further construction delays expected, according to Japan\u2019s Ministry of Defense.<\/p>\n

One of six vessels contracted by the ministry to drive sand piles into the seabed of Oura Bay returned to Camp Schwab on Wednesday to begin preparatory work, a spokesman with the Okinawa Defense Bureau, an arm of the ministry, said by phone Friday. The sand piles will reclaim parts of the seabed for the airfield. <\/p>\n

\u201cTemporary suspensions of construction are not expected to cause any immediate delays to the project,\u201d the spokesman said. <\/p>\n

Construction is carried out daily, including Sundays and holidays, \u201cdepending on weather and sea conditions,\u201d according to the bureau.<\/p>\n

The vessel was working in the bay around noon Thursday. <\/p>\n

\u201cOnce the necessary preparatory work is completed, it will drive sand piles, taking into account weather and sea conditions,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

The vessels evacuated the area<\/a> on June 10 due to a typhoon, according to the Okinawa prefecture\u2019s Seashore Disaster Prevention Division in July. The first typhoon of the year appeared June 11 west of Taiwan in the South China Sea, but no typhoons have so far approached the island this year.<\/p>\n

Two of the vessels moved to Nakagusuku Bay in Central Okinawa, and four relocated to Amami Oshima, an island north of Okinawa, a division spokesman said by phone Wednesday. <\/p>\n

Some Japanese government officials speak to the media only on condition of anonymity. <\/p>\n

Construction is expected to last until at least 2033 and cost the Japanese government nearly $6 billion, Defense Minister Gen Nakatani said in January. The airfield may be ready for use by 2036, he added. <\/p>\n

The project has faced nearly a decade of hiccups<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Legal challenges from the Okinawa prefectural government delayed construction after the U.S. and Japanese governments agreed in 1996 to relocate the airfield from Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in densely populated Ginowan city to rural Henoko. <\/p>\n

Work on the Oura Bay side was paused on April 21, 2020, when Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki, citing safety and environmental concerns, refused to approve design changes meant to solidify the seabed. <\/p>\n

Japan\u2019s Supreme Court in January rejected the final legal challenge<\/a> and ended a series of 14 construction-related lawsuits filed by both sides since Nov. 17, 2015.<\/p>\n

Contractors began driving sand piles on Dec. 28. About 2,800 piles out of 71,000 had been driven as of May 31, the division spokesman said in July. <\/p>\n

In July 2024, contractors drove test piles into the seabed to prepare the site for steel pipes that will support Seawall A. Construction began in August and contractors had driven 140 steel sheet piles for the seawall as of February, the spokesman said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A construction vessel works at the site of a future Marine Corps airfield in Oura Bay at Camp…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2877,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[3009,1069,3013,8,3015,3016,3017,1038,3011,3012,3014,162,3010],"class_list":{"0":"post-2876","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-okinawa","8":"tag-airfield","9":"tag-construction","10":"tag-construction-resumes","11":"tag-japan","12":"tag-marine-airfield","13":"tag-marine-airfield-okinawa","14":"tag-marine-airfield-oura-bay","15":"tag-marine-corps","16":"tag-marine-corps-airfield","17":"tag-marine-corps-airfield-okinawa","18":"tag-marine-corps-airfield-oura-bay","19":"tag-okinawa","20":"tag-oura-bay"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}