January 21, 2016 Ryukyu Shimpo
PFOS, a fluorinated organic compound and pollutant, has been detected in the water at Chatan Water Purification Plant and Hija River. On January 21, director of the Okinawa Prefectural Enterprise Bureau Toshiaki Taira visited the Defense Ministry’s Okinawa Defense Bureau (ODB) in Kadena Town and requested that the U.S. Armed Forces grant authorization to enter base compounds for investigation purposes. ODB Planning Department Vice-Director Hitoshi Miyagawa...
January 22, 2016 Ryukyu Shimpo
During the roughly two years between December 2013 and the end of November 2015, Japan’s Ministry of Defense (MOD) has entered into contracts with sixty-five companies to carry out construction and other works related to the relocation of U.S. Marine Corps...
January 24, 2016 Ryukyu Shimpo
In the Ginowan mayoral election held on January 24, incumbent Atsushi Sakima, 51, who was seeking a second term and had the support of the Japanese government’s ruling parties, won against challenger Keiichiro Shimura, 63, a former prefectural government...
January 20, 2016 Ryukyu Shimpo
The Okinawa Prefectural Education Board has told the Japanese government’s Agency for Cultural Affairs its opposition to capturing and moving Coenobita hermit crabs living at Henoko, Nago. The Defense Ministry’s Okinawa bureau sent a request to the prefectural...
January 19, 2016 Ryukyu Shimpo
Last month, the Committee for Settling National-Local Disputes dismissed the Okinawa prefectural government’s request for a review. The Okinawa prefectural government had requested that the Committee review the appropriateness of the Minister of Land, Infrastructure,...
January 15, 2016 Ryukyu Shimpo
Okinawa Prefectural Government (OPG) decided to launch an additional court case on January 14 against the national government over the issue of Futenma Air base relocation to Henoko in Nago City. The case is to file complaints about the decision made by the third...
January 14, 2016 Ryukyu Shimpo
The Ministry of Defense (MOD) has proposed Hirae within Ishigaki City as the planned site for deployment of Japan Self Defense Forces (JSDF). On the night of January 13, about 20 resident representatives of the neighboring districts of Kainan, Takeda, and Omoto...
January 13, 2016 Ryukyu Shimpo
At a press meeting on January 13, Nago mayor Susumu Inamine criticized recent remarks made by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at a national Diet session. The prime minister said that matters of national security “are not something decided by a single local election.”...
January 12, 2016 Ryukyu Shimpo
Sakae Toiyama reports from Washington, D.C.
Recent statistics show that during fiscal 2010-2012, the U.S. Marine Corps’ MV-22 Osprey aircraft stationed in Afghanistan experienced one Class A-D accident for every 90.4 hours of flight time. The MV-22 Osprey...
January 7, 2016 Ryukyu Shimpo
By Takahiro Miyagi
Recently, residents living around Kadena Air Base raised the concern of a bad stench to the prefectural government. On January 6 in response to this concern, the prefectural government decided to pursue a plan to designate the town of Kadena...
January 5, 2016 Ryukyu Shimpo
On January 4, Governor Takeshi Onaga made his new years’ greeting to prefectural employees over the Prefectural Office’s broadcast system. In the greeting, he expressed his determination to continue working to prevent the construction of a new U.S. military...
Webcam(Kokusai Street)