Rushing Toward Showdown

The Governor of Okinawa, Takeshi Onaga, revoked approval for landfill in coastal area of Henoko in Nago city, which had been issued by his predecessor for the construction of new military base as a replacement of Futenma Airbase of United States Marine Corps. Losing legal basis of the landfill, Ministry of Defense is going to take immediate action to make Onaga’s decision invalid. Opposition between Tokyo and Okinawa seems to have gone beyond the point of no return.

In the press conference on Tuesday, Onaga explained that he found legal defects in the process of approval and concluded that the approval should be cancelled. “I will make my best to implement my campaign promise in the gubernatorial election that was not allowing building new base in Henoko,” told Onaga. His staff in Okinawa local government brought a notification to the office of Okinawa Defense Bureau.

According to the notification, Onaga realized that the reason for appropriateness of building alternative facility of Futenma Air Base in somewhere in Okinawa was baseless. While national government argued that Okinawa had geographical superiority compared to other places in Japan, the notification dismissed it because national government had not indicated any viable reason in terms of time or distance. It also questioned the measures for preserving natural environment around Henoko, based on a research that found destruction of coral in the seabed.

This countermeasure could be predicted months ago. Central government failed to persuade Okinawa to accept current construction plan in concentrated dialogue this summer. Although Okinawa government set a hearing for disputing, ODB did not appeared, arguing that process of approval had been appropriate with no defect. To meet demand of political supporters in Okinawa, Onaga had no way other than revoking the approval.

While Prime Minister Shinzo Abe showed some appeasing attitude, including the pick of a lawmaker elected from Okinawa to the post of Minister for Okinawa Issue in the reshuffle of his Cabinet earlier this month, national government finally lost a choice for peaceful settlement. ODB will dispute the legality of Onaga’s decision to Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism and continue construction in Henoko. Then, it is unavoidable that Okinawa government will make a lawsuit against ODB.

This issue needs to be recognized as opposition between centralization of political power and local sovereignty in Japan. In a beautiful country in Abe’s mind, people blindly follow decision of central government. This is a concept of governance totally obsolete in this civilized world.