The Impossible Prefectural Speech: Time to Involve the Rest of the World

Japan and the U.S. have agreed to relocate the Futenma Marine Corps Air Station to Henoko Bay in Nago. “I think it is just as impossible [to move the base to] other regions within Okinawa,” says Hirokazu Nakaima, prefectural governor of Okinawa. In his opinion, relocating the base within Okinawa prefecture should not be an option, even outside the Henoko area.

This appears to be a bold statement, ruling out any return to negotiations for relocation within the prefecture. It would indeed be most welcome if the governor were to concentrate his efforts on removing the Futenma base and solving the problems associated with this issue.

What we need is a strategy that can realistically lead to the removal of the Futenma base from Japan. Governor Nakaima is scheduled to visit the United States in September, but he should work out a detailed plan of action well before that.

The U.S.-Japanese agreement regarding Futenma lacks democratic legitimacy. Its policy-making processes continuously disregard public opinion. The public has used the gubernatorial elections, the mayoral elections, the prefectural assembly elections and the national elections to clarify its position: “not within this prefecture.” It is a vicious violation of human rights. The prefectural governor must reveal this travesty to the United Nations and to the international community in general.

For the Japanese and U.S. governments, who have otherwise completed the return of Okinawa to Japan, it must surely be possible to also return those 480 hectares of land that are still occupied by the Futenma base. It is simply a matter of political will. The governor should make it clear to the U.S. government, and to all members of the U.S. Congress, that the removal of the airbase is essential for the maintenance of stable Japanese-American relations. He should take advantage of email and all other available communication options, and must also point out that there is public opposition to Japan’s ongoing financial subsidization of the U.S. forces at the airbase. An exit strategy for Futenma needs to be part of a long-term strategy for dismantling the military presence throughout the prefecture. After the Japanese and U.S. governments agreed in 1996 to relocate the airbase, the prefectural government of Ōta sketched out future strategies for “creating a cosmopolitan city” and establishing a “base relocation action program.”

This coincided with the 2001 Central Government Reform, with changes favoring decentralization and deregulation, as well as the fifth Comprehensive National Development Plan, the final report of the Special Action Committee on Okinawa (SACO) and an increased level of cooperation between the member nations of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC).

Today, the external environment of Okinawa is undergoing rapid changes. We have issues like the deadlock of the Democratic Party’s governing section, the gradual progress of regional sovereignty reform, Barack Obama’s promotion of “a world without nuclear weapons,” the emergence of China as an economic and military power, the economic crisis affecting both Japan and the U.S. and the Tōhoku earthquake and subsequent nuclear disaster.

The prefecture needs to analyze and understand these events and must lay plans to keep the demilitarization efforts alive. Governor Nakaima must also get involved in plans concerning the future of the prefecture. For the sake of peace and stability in East Asia, he ought to address the effectiveness of the trilateral talks between Japan, China and the United States.

The governor’s visit this year to the United States will hopefully be a historic turning point, with the removal of Futenma Air Station. Now that Nakaima’s stance regarding any potential relocation within the prefecture has been made perfectly clear, the citizens of the prefecture need to unite and stand by him.