Strong-Arming Tokunoshima

A proposal has been floated to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma (currently in Ginowan, Okinawa Prefecture) to Tokunoshima [an island in Kagoshima Prefecture]. It has been revealed that Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano shared this plan with Okinawa Prefectural Governor Hirokazu Nakaima during their meeting on April 1st.

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has denied it as “wanton speculation.” However, time is running out for the base to be moved off of Okinawa in time for the administration’s self-imposed deadline (“We will come to a decision by the end of May.”), and it doesn’t seem as though there are any other places to move it.

It is not too much to say that Tokunoshima has been singled out as a result of the administration’s hastiness. It is hard to deny the charge of strong-arming the local residents — to whom nothing has been explained and whose opinions have not been heard.

It has come to light that a legislator of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) was in Tokunoshima in January to glean public opinion about the move. Since then, protests by the government and the people have spread, and the 12 municipalities of the Amami Islands have all adopted measures in opposition to bringing the base there.

Prime Minister Hatoyama has declared that he would not order the base moved there without obtaining local approval, and the United States also insists on this consent as a condition for entering negotiations. It is questionable, then, how likely a move to Tokunoshima is, given the demonstrations and protests going on.

Besides Tokunoshima, Mageshima (part of Nishinoomote City) and the Kanoya Naval Air Base have been identified as candidate locations in Kagoshima Prefecture. The prefectural assembly has adopted an opinion in opposition to moving the base there, and Governor Yuichiro Ito has voiced his opposition as well. However, we would like to see more effort go into gathering accurate information about the possible move and disseminating it to the public.

The plan that the government is mulling over is said to involve moving the Futenma base temporarily to Camp Schwab (the U.S. Marine camp in Nago City, Okinawa Prefecture) and then either to a man-made island off the coast of the Katsuren Peninsula on the eastern coast of the main island of Okinawa or to Tokunoshima.

Late last month, Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada presented this idea to U.S. Ambassador to Japan John Roos. It is a tell-tale sign of the chaos reigning in the administration that he would present Mr. Hirano’s proposal as-is: unfinished.

In addition to U.S. approval, the Futenma relocation must receive the blessing of the ruling coalition partners — the Social Democratic Party and the People’s New Party — who have different expectations than the DPJ. As the prime minister has himself noted, he is faced with a challenge as difficult as “threading rope through a pinhole.”

In order to solve this conundrum, it will be necessary to prioritize the wishes of the local population that will accommodate the base. We cannot force outlying districts to pay for the administration’s dithering.