On February 18 at Naha District Court, the oral proceedings of the third Kadena noise pollution lawsuit took place, presided over by Judge Tetuya Fujikura. Professor of environmental health at Hokkaido University Toshihito Matsui, called to the stand as an expert witness, reported an estimation of the effect on the population living around Kadena Air Base, saying, “About four people are dying of heart attacks and strokes per year due to nighttime [aircraft] noise.”
Professor Matsui estimated that around Kadena Air Base 10,000 people have moderate or severe sleep disorders. The number of people around Kadena Air Base experiencing heart disease and strokes has risen to about 30 people, and about 4 people die of heart attacks and strokes annually. Professor Matusi applied the methods used in epidemiological surveys conducted by the World Health Organization and Heathrow Airport to the data of the noise levels around Kadena from the Okinawa prefectural government to come up with these results.
In regards to studies involving the effect of noise, Professor Matsui said, “Up until now, it was incorrectly thought that loud noise had only considerable psychological effects. However, knowledge on the health effects of noise is being gathered through studies conducted in Europe.” Concerning Kadena Air Base he testified, “Scientific understanding shows that getting rid of heart disease and deaths related to [aircraft] noise is not possible without suspending nighttime flights and base activities.”
Following continued negotiations in May, the trial is expected to conclude in August this year.
Parents at the Tabaru Aiji Preschool in Tabaru, Naha City, held a snow-play party for the children on February 6. Three-hundred children and their parents attended the event to play with white snow sent from Hokkaido.
The event was held by the parents’ association led by Tomomi Nakamoto, Noriko Hamakawa, and Izumi Arakaki. The group prepared 12 boxes of snow with support from their acquaintances in Hokkaido. Yelping “cold!” the children spent a rare time playing with snow and making snowmen.
Nakamoto celebrated the success of the event as she commented, “This will be a good memory for the children. As we had exciting news of having sleet in Okinawa, we are glad that we got them to experience real snow.”
Giant Kangaroo, or Macropus giganteus, Miyuki gave birth to her fourth baby in the Okinawa Zoo and Museum in Okinawa City. The newborn baby kangaroo has frequently been showing its face from its mother’s pouch. On January 31, the breeding staff of the zoo saw the baby showing its face from the pouch and confirmed its birth. The baby was thought to have been born the size of a one-yen coin six months ago. It then moved into the pouch and has been staying there ever since.
According to a zoo spokesperson, the birth of a kangaroo is formally acknowledged when a baby shows itself from its mother’s pouch. As of February 14, it is not clear whether the baby is male or female. The baby kangaroo weighs about 900 grams and has slight hair growth. While its eyes are clearly open, the ears droop. The baby shows itself from the pouch and plays with the weeds its mother eats.
The baby’s father is Uzuki, the only male kangaroo in the zoo. With the newborn baby, the total number of kangaroos in the zoo is now seven – one male, five females and the newborn. The baby kangaroo will stay in Miyuki’s pouch for another six months while it grows.
On the morning of February 16, the Chatan Town Council held a special meeting to discuss the constant influx of foreign aircrafts flying to the Kadena Air Base. Members unanimously passed a resolution of protest and statement against this issue. The statement and resolution requested the following: 1) Cancelation of all current inbound flights, temporary deployments, and training using foreign aircrafts. The area must be cleared immediately. 2) Easing of the burden placed by U.S. military bases and making sure their roles do not continue to grow any larger. 3) Adhering with the noise prevention agreement. 4) Drastic revision of the Japan-U.S. Status-of-Forces Agreement.
In regards to the estimated 40 foreign aircrafts that have been flying to Kadena Air Base from across and beyond Japan, Mayor Kengi Taba said, “We haven’t seen such a large influx of foreign aircrafts since the Vietnam War in the 1970s. We are nowhere close to alleviating the burden caused by the realignment of U.S. military forces in Japan.” He also criticized how foreign aircrafts were flying without notice and that the noise emissions were getting worse. Taba commented, “We can’t contain our fury against the arbitrary ways of the U.S. military, who have clearly broken the bounds.” ]
The resolution of protest was addressed to the U.S. Ambassador to Japan, the Commander of U.S. Forces in Japan, and the 18th Wing Commander. The statement was addressed to both Presidents of the House of Representatives and the House of Councilors, the Prime Minister, as well as the Okinawa Defense Bureau. Mayor Taba and other representatives plan to visit the 18th Wing and the Okinawa Defense Bureau to protest in person on February 17.
Okinawa Prefectural Government is setting up a new division within the Department of Culture, Tourism and Sports in order to promote karate and kobudo. It is due to start in April.
Okinawa Governor Takeshi Onaga clearly stated on February 12 that he would set up the new division, responding to a request from the holders of the Intangible Cultural Property of Okinawan Karate and Kobujutsu as designated by the prefectural government.
According to the prefectural officials, the new division, named Karate Promote Division, will start with five staff members, including the head of the division.
The new division will promote Okinawa karate and provide information on it. It will also take over the work of the Cultural Promotion Division in promoting Okinawa karate to be listed with UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage.
At a regular meeting of the Prefectural Assembly on February 16, Governor Takeshi Onaga presented his administration’s 2016 objectives. He also spoke about the Henoko landfill permit authorized by the previous administration, saying that he withdrew the landfill permit because it was identified as having legal flaws that warranted its nullification. Going forth, he says he intends to continue to attest to the validity of Okinawa’s stance in court and elsewhere.
Onaga claims that 2016 will be an important year for accelerating Okinawa’s development, following the accomplishments of the last 5 fiscal years under the 10-year Okinawa 21st Century Vision Master Plan. His administration will conduct an interim assessment and make changes as needed to build on past success and promote Okinawa’s development.
With the goal of promoting Okinawa’s economic growth, Onaga declared the formulation of a propulsion plan aimed at implementing the Asia Economic Strategy Plan from 2015. Centered on an Asia Economic Strategy Division to be established this year, Onaga wants expansion and strengthening of leading industries related to tourism and telecommunications, linked to the fast-growing dynamism of Asia. He also supports molding Okinawa into an international logistics hub.
Onaga explained that the challenges of the coming fiscal year span over many fields, and outlined his objectives for the coming year. These include concrete policies for promoting tourism, combatting childhood poverty, making developments on the outlying islands of Okinawa, bettering education, and improving employment and the labor problem.
One after another, major international online travel companies are promoting Okinawa as a travel destination. Booking.com (based in the Netherlands) and Expedia (based in the US), have both established regional offices in Okinawa. Japanese domestic integrated online travel site Rakuten Travel (based in Tokyo) is raising the number of accommodations it features to 1000, and editing its information on reservation prices and favorability assessments.
Head of the Japan Hotel Association’s Okinawa Chapter Satoshi Toyama stated that foreign sightseers have come to more commonly plan their trips personally using online resources rather than using a travel agency. He observed that major international online travel companies are promoting Okinawa with the hope that the number of sightseers planning personal trips to Okinawa will increase.
Booking.com Japan established a regional office in Naha in November last year and featured 360 accommodations within Okinawa. The company has now increased that number by 11.1 percent to about 400 accommodations. A representative of Booking.com admitted that the benchmark number of accommodations the company initially expected to feature in order to make the regional office practical was quickly surpassed. The same representative said that the company is proposing more active establishment of new facilities on the island, and development of the already-existing facility. Currently there are only five staff members at the Naha office, but the company plans to increase its staff.
Expedia established its fifth branch office in Okinawa on February 5. Currently, 284 accommodations within Okinawa have registered with the site. By June, the company hopes to have 300 registered Okinawan accommodations. Head of Expedia’s Okinawa branch Miho Yamazaki said, “Up to 2014 reservations were concentrated in Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto. However, since January 2015 Okinawa has outranked Kyoto as the third most common place [in Japan] to make reservations.” She eagerly concluded, “From here on out, we hope Okinawa keeps third place.”
The amount of money paid for reservations through Rakuten Travel increased by 20.8 percent between 2014 and 2015 for the period between January 1 and November 15 both years. The majority of trips planned through the Rakuten Travel site are family trips. Second and third in commonality are trips for couples and lone men. A representative of Rakuten Travel said that company’s strategy for attracting more site users includes picking out many more charms in Okinawa than just the image of blue skies and the ocean, in order to make it a more appealing travel destination to users.
On February 8, the date of the Lunar New Year, the first prayer of the year, “Hachi ugan”, was offered at a hallowed ground, “Shirumichu”, in Katsuren Higa in Uruma City. It is said that an ancestral god of Ryukyu, Amamichu, and Shirumichu are enshrined in a cave on a hill in the area. Residents played sanshin and taiko, and performed dances as they prayed for a state of perfect health and a prosperous year.
At Shirumichu, a stalactite enshrined in a cave is a sacred stone believed to have provided the treasure of a child. For the beginning of the year, Noro (shaman) of a community prayed with offerings of rice and sweets. Many residents who visited Shirumichu prayed for the prosperity of the community.
Praying with a hanagumi (polished white rice) offering on his or her head is believed to bring good health to people. Seventy-eight-year-old Yasue Miyagi, who visits the site every year, said, “I get hanagumi and pray with my siblings for health for another year.”
Ward Mayor Tsuyoshi Shinjo said, “I want to visit 12 sacred places in the community and pray for the community’s prosperity throughout the year.”
At 0:58 p.m. on February 10, near range 9 in the Camp Hansen training area in Kin, wildfire broke out. According to the Okinawa Military Base Affairs Division of the Okinawa Prefectural Government, U.S. Military officials confirmed at 7:27 a.m. on February 11 that the wildfire had been extinguished.
The wildfire was caused by the U.S. military’s live-fire training. The U.S. military extinguished the fire using airplanes. The military is now investigating the extent of the damage. This is the fifth wildfire in a U.S. military facility in Okinawa this year.
February 15 marked the fourth hearing in the trial brought by the Japanese government against the Okinawa prefectural government over the construction of a new base in Henoko, Nago as part of the relocation of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma. After Okinawa Governor Takeshi Onaga nullified the permit needed to reclaim land off the coast of Henoko, the Japanese government’s Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism sued for permission to authorize the land reclamation by proxy. The trial is being held at the Naha branch of the Fukuoka High Court, presided over by Judge Toshiro Tamiya.
At the previous hearing, the presiding judge urged the parties to come to an out-of-court settlement, offering two compromise proposals. At the February 15 hearing, it was finally revealed by the Okinawan side that one of these proposals, dubbed a “provisional solution,” stipulated that the national government should withdraw the lawsuit and suspend land reclamation works while the two sides engage in talks toward a new solution. After the hearing, Governor Onaga told the press that he had conveyed to the court his optimistic stance toward considering this “provisional solution” proposal.
The proposal rests on the precondition that the government will suspend construction works, meaning that Okinawa prefecture would lose the grounds for its claims in the two lawsuits it has brought against the government over the same issue, and those two trials would also be terminated. Lawyer Isao Takeshita, part of the team of lawyers representing Okinawa, stated, “Since all three of the trials will be temporarily solved, and the construction will stop, the proposal warrants our consideration.” At a later date, the national government may end up bringing a different kind of lawsuit against Okinawa prefecture; the new lawsuit would seek to have the governor’s nullification of the permit overturned by declaring it an act of unlawful negligence of administrative duty. This type of lawsuit would have the same effect of overturning the governor’s decision, but is less legally forceful than an execution-by-proxy lawsuit. If such a case is brought by the government at a later date, the “provisional solution” proposal stipulates that both sides must go along with the trial.
According to prefectural representatives, during talks after the hearing, the court authorized the release of details relating to the “provisional solution” proposal. However, it refused to authorize release of details relating to the other proposal, a so-called “fundamental solution” which reports say stipulate that the Okinawa governor should reverse his nullification of the land reclamation permit, in exchange for which the Japanese government should negotiate with the U.S. to have the base either returned to Japanese administration or converted into a joint military-civilian airport within thirty years of its completion.
Governor Onaga gave his testimony at the February 15 hearing. He talked of Okinawa’s history of bearing an excessive burden of U.S. military bases, and strongly protested the national government’s current attempt to push forward forcefully with the Henoko base construction, saying that Okinawans’ rights to liberty and equality as Japanese citizens have been continually ignored. He reiterated his determination not to let a new base be built in Henoko, and urged the court to display careful consideration in coming to a verdict that will enable Okinawa’s people to live with courage and pride.
The hearing lasted two and a half hours, as representatives from both the national government and the Okinawa prefectural government questioned the governor. Onaga stated that the third-party committee that issued the report revealing legal flaws in the previous governor’s authorization of the Henoko land reclamation, which became the grounds for his nullification of the permit, had been “impartial, neutral, and objective” in reaching its conclusions. He emphasized that he had not set up the committee simply in order to follow through with his campaign pledge to prevent the Henoko base construction. He also expressed his intention, as an administrative head, to accept the court’s eventual ruling.
The next hearing in the trial will be held on February 29. Nago Mayor Susumu Inamine will give witness testimony, and the trial will conclude on the same day.
After the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLITT) ordered a suspension execution of Okinawa governor Takeshi Onaga’s nullification of the permit authorizing land reclamation in Henoko, the Okinawa prefectural government filed a protest lawsuit at the Naha District Court on the grounds that the MLITT’s order was illegal. The Japanese government petitioned for the proceedings be carried out at the Tokyo District Court instead, but on February 10, the Naha District Court dismissed this petition. Now that it has been decided that the proceedings will be carried out in Naha, the trial’s schedule will likely be decided soon. When the Okinawa prefectural government filed the suit, it simultaneously requested that measures be taken to temporarily invalidate the MLITT’s suspension of execution of Governor Onaga’s permit nullification until a verdict is reached. If the court accommodates this request, the governor’s permit nullification will regain its legal binding power, and the national government will be forced to suspend construction on the Henoko base.
As grounds for dismissing the government’s request, the Naha District Court cited that “no specific difficulties are apparent, and there is no apparent need to question witnesses.” The Okinawa prefectural government accepted that the trial be held at the Naha District Court. The prefectural government had previously anticipated that the trial would be held at the Tokyo District Court, and had drawn up a budget of 4.18 million yen to cover travel expenses for those involved, but now the budget will not need to be implemented.
Another lawsuit was recently brought against the government by 21 residents living near Henoko Ward in Nago City, also protesting the suspension of execution of Governor Onaga’s permit nullification. Also on February 10, the Naha district Court determined it would be the one to hold the trial.
Webcam(Kokusai Street)
