Archive for February, 2016

Recent News

OCVB holds Muslim recipe contest

OCVB holds Muslim recipe contest

February 3, 2016 Ryukyu Shimpo

On January 29, Okinawa Prefectural Government and Okinawa Convention & Visitors Bureau (OCVB) held the final selection meeting for a Muslim recipe contest, created to attract visitors from Muslim countries, at Tiruru (Okinawa Gender Equality Center), Naha.

The contest has two sections, the Vegetarian section, mainly using Okinawan vegetables, and the Non-Pork, Non-Alcohol section.

Okinawa Genki Norimaki (seaweed roll) and Colorful Salad...

 

Filmmaker Junkerman to take his movie “The Afterburn” to the US

Filmmaker Junkerman to take his movie “The Afterburn” to the US

February 5, 2016 Ryukyu Shimpo

Documentary filmmaker John Junkerman, who made the full-length documentary movie The Afterburn (“Okinawa: Urizun no Ame”), visited Camp Schwab gate to film the people who are protesting against the new U.S. military base construction in Henoko, Nago City,...

Heart transplant operation of one-year-old Onaga is successful

Heart transplant operation of one-year-old Onaga is successful

February 10, 2016 Ryukyu Shimpo

One-year-old Noa Onaga who was diagnosed with dilatation of the myocarditis, which decreases heart activity, has been staying in the United States for a heart transplant. From February 5 to 6, she had the successful operation at Columbia University. She is currently...

Lunar New Year tourists enjoy shopping sprees in Okinawa

Lunar New Year tourists enjoy shopping sprees in Okinawa

February 9, 2016 Ryukyu Shimpo
By Wu Li Jun

The Lunar New Year began on February 6, and many Chinese and Taiwanese tourists are visiting Okinawa as a result. Tourists have been flooding into large-scale shopping malls, adding to the liveliness Products on their checklist include home...

OPG to ask Japan to step into environmental pollution survey by U.S. military

OPG to ask Japan to step into environmental pollution survey by U.S. military

February 4, 2016 Ryuykyu Shimpo

Okinawa Prefectural Government (OPG) has included proposals to ask for the Japanese government’s intervention into a draft of the “Environmental Survey Guidelines,” which OPG aims to decide upon in March 2017, to clarify the government’s handling of environmental...

Photograph of Shuri Castle taken 130 years ago found in Yamagata

Photograph of Shuri Castle taken 130 years ago found in Yamagata

February 6, 2016 Ryukyu Shimpo

Rare photographs of Shuri Castle and other scenes in Okinawa, which, experts speculate, were taken soon after Haihan-chiken, the feudal domain system, was abolished and the prefectural system was introduced in Okinawa in 1879, were found among the possessions...

Henoko lawsuit settlement proposals include suggestion of 30-year use limit for base

Henoko lawsuit settlement proposals include suggestion of 30-year use limit for base

February 3, 2016, Ryukyu Shimpo

After Okinawa governor Takeshi Onaga withdrew the permit to reclaim land in Henoko, Nago for the construction of a U.S. military base, he was sued by the Japanese government, which sought the authority to approve the land reclamation by proxy, arguing that the...

80,000 colorful tulips at Okinawa Expo Park

80,000 colorful tulips at Okinawa Expo Park

January 28, 2016 Ryukyu Shimpo

On January 27, Okinawa’s historic cold weather eased away and a tulip fair started at the Tropical Dream Center in Okinawa Expo Park, Motobu. Visitors enjoyed about 80,000 tulips in 48 varieties.

Naoko Yashiki, who visited the park from Saitama with her...

Number of Chinese tourists in Okinawa to soar during Lunar New Year

February 2, 2016 Ryukyu Shimpo
By Wu Li Jun

February 6 marks the beginning of the Lunar New Year. The Greater China region will be able to enjoy a long series of holidays, a nine-day weekend being the biggest. This is likely to bring a much larger crowd of visitors to Okinawa, compared...

Kinjo seeking information about her sister separated in Saipan

Kinjo seeking information about her sister separated in Saipan

January 28, 2016 Ryukyu Shimpo

Eighty-one-year-old preschool director Toshiko Kinjo is looking for her sister who she was separated from during the war in Saipan. Her sister, Etsuko, was one year old at that time. Kinjo attended a meeting on January 27 in Naha City held by a plaintiff group...

Editorial: PAC-3 deployments raise tensions when diplomatic efforts should be prioritized

February 5, 2016 Ryukyu Shimpo

Japan Self-Defense Forces (SDF) deployments should not be permitted under the justification that they are meant to counter North Korea’s announced missile launch. The important thing in this situation is to make concentrated diplomatic efforts, not raise tensions.

In...