Okinawa base relocation works continue, complicating Abe’s US visit

TOKYO — Japan’s Defence Ministry continued work on a new United States military airfield in Okinawa yesterday morning, defying Okinawa Governor Takeshi Onaga’s order to suspend operations because of suspected damage to coral on the seabed.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, who doubles as minister in charge of reducing the military burden on Okinawa, told reporters yesterday he saw no reason to stop work at the site.

The row risks complicating Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit to the US next month, just as he seeks to strengthen ties with Japan’s only treaty ally amid a territorial dispute with China. Failure to comply with Mr Onaga’s order could spur a protracted legal battle between the governments in Tokyo and Okinawa, and reignite protests by locals opposed to the relocation.

In addition to possibly hurting ties with the US, “an even greater number of Okinawans will be upset” if the work on the base continues, said Mr Koichi Nakano, a professor of politics at Sophia University in Tokyo. “The US relies so heavily on Okinawa for its bases in the Far East that it is not in its interest to antagonise the local hosts to an irreparable degree.”

Mr Onaga swept to office in November on a platform of opposition to the extension of the US base, undermining an agreement by his predecessor that had appeared to end nearly two decades of wrangling.

Local residents complain of noise, accidents, crime and pollution associated with the US military bases. Protests flared in January over the restart of ocean bed surveys.

Okinawa, site of one of the bloodiest battles between US and Japanese Imperial forces during World War II, now plays host to about half the 50,000 US military personnel based in Japan. The prefecture, about 1,600 kilometres south of Tokyo, served as a vital staging point for US troops during the Korean and Vietnam wars, and administers uninhabited islets also claimed by China.

Mr Abe is set to hold talks in Washington on April 28 with President Barack Obama on issues including the security alliance.

The Marine base expansion on Okinawa is “critical” to plans for a reorganisation of US troops in Japan, the State Department said after the island’s governor ordered the suspension.

“Many years of sustained work between the US and Japan” went into an agreement enabling the Marine Corps Air Station Futenma to be moved from a city-centre location, Ms Marie Harf, a State Department spokeswoman, told reporters in Washington on Monday. “Our understanding is the construction on the replacement facility will proceed as planned.”

The US has had an extensive military presence on the island since 1945. The US and Japan agreed in 1996 to relocate the base, but local frictions about environmental and other concerns have caused repeated delays and changes of plan. AGENCIES