On the morning of November 17, the national government of Japan lodged a suit with the Naha branch of the Fukuoka High Court to override local government decisions, alleging Governor Takeshi Onaga’s revocation of a landfill order is an illegal administrative action. The governments of Japan and the United States plan to relocate U.S. Marine Corp Air Station Futenma to new facilities to be built in the Henoko area, including at Camp Schwab and Oura Bay.
This is the second legal face-off between the national and Okinawa governments over the military base issue since 1995 when the then-governor, Masahide Ota, refused orders to force landowners to renew leases with the U.S. military and was subsequently sued by the prime minister.
It is the first time the central government has filed to override a local government’s decisions since the Local Autonomy Law was amended in 1999.
The Onaga administration, pledging to block construction of the base in Henoko, has entered a new, tough phase to win a legal fight against the national government.
The legality of the Okinawa governor’s revocation of the landfill permit will be contested in the court.
The first oral argument will be held by December 1 under the Local Government Act.
At 8:22 a.m. on November 17, Naha District Legal Affairs Bureau’s officers submitted a court document amid reporters awaiting their arrival at the Naha branch of the Fukuoka High Court.
On November 4, Marco Lombardi, the consul general of Italy based in Osaka, visited Okinawa and met with vice governor Mitsuo Ageda. Lombardi said the number of Italian tourists visiting Okinawa has increased, and that he would like to deepen friendship and cooperation with Okinawa, especially in the economic and tourism fields.
He mentioned that many Italian travel companies promote Okinawa as a tour destination. He said, “Okinawa has the southern islands exotic atmosphere. It’s so different from Italy and very attractive. We would like to develop our friendship and establish cooperative and beneficial relationships.”
Mitsuo Ageda said, “We want to become more familiar with Italian people.”
The consul general visited Okinawa to take part in an Italian wine promotion event at the Busena Terrace on November 3 in Nago.
An event to crown the 2016 Miss Okinawa was held hosted by the Okinawa Convention & Visitors Bureau (OCVB) on November 8 at Okinawa Convention Center in Ginowan.
Anna Okuhama, 23-year-old vocational school student from Ginowan, won Miss Sky Blue, Kumiko Morita, 22-year-old travel company employee was awarded Miss Cobalt Blue and Yuka Shinzato, 27-year-old advertising agency employee, became Miss Clean Green Gracious.
The three beauty queens will take part in events to promote Okinawan tourism from January next year.
Okuhama said with a smile, “I felt a heavy responsibility to carry out my mission when I was crowned with the tiara.”
“I would like to promote the charming aspects of Okinawa to tourists using the experience and knowledge that I have acquired through working at a travel company,” Morita said.
Shinzato said, “I am looking forward to serving in my role as Miss Okinawa and hope to attract many tourists here.”
On November 9, members of Greenpeace, the international environmental protection organization, visited Mayor Susumu Inamine at Nago City Hall. The Greenpeace campaign ship Rainbow Warrior’s crew expressed their wish to moor at Nago Fishing Port overnight and depart on November 10. Mayor Inamine welcomed the crew to the port.
Rainbow Warrior crewmember and oceans campaigner at Greenpeace New Zealand Karli Thomas made a statement in reference to her visit to Oura Bay 10 years ago. She declared, “It is an uncommonly beautiful place. If construction rages on, the ecosystem home to the Dugong will be entirely destroyed.” Greenpeace delivered a collection of signatures from 164 countries around the world, requesting that the waters at Henoko and Oura Bay be made ocean sanctuaries.
Mayor Inamine, upon receiving the signatures, offered his thanks, saying, “Even though local people oppose the base problems we face in our everyday lives, the Government of Japan is politically forcing through relocation [of Futenma Air Station]. The world is watching Japan (specifically, the government’s forced construction), so we cannot lose hope.”
According to Greenpeace, as of 2 p.m. on November 9, the Okinawa General Bureau (Cabinet Office) had not replied to the application to moor the Rainbow Warrior at Nago Fishing Port.
On November 9, the Okinawa prefectural government sent the text of Governor Onaga’s Speech at the United Nations to ambassadors and honorary consuls from 151 countries and regions based at embassies and consulates in Tokyo. The speech regards the construction of a new U.S. military base in Henoko, Nago and was given by Governor Takeshi Onaga at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland in September.
The Japanese government has begun procedures to prepare for actual construction of the new Henoko base, and the prefectural government will soon be embroiled in a legal battle against the national government regarding Governor Onaga’s rescinding of the Henoko land reclamation permit. Against this backdrop, the Okinawa prefectural government aims to clearly convey Okinawa’s opposition to the new base construction to the international community.
In addition to the governor’s UN speech, the Okinawa prefectural government also sent English-language documents explaining the excessive burden of US military bases shouldered by Okinawa and the construction plans for the new Henoko base.
The governor’s UN speech explains that all the U.S. military bases in Okinawa were built on land forcibly seized by the U.S. military after the Battle of Okinawa, and that the Okinawan people did not provide the land of their own volition.
The speech further explains that despite the fact that Okinawa makes up a mere 0.6% of Japan’s land mass, 74% of US military exclusive-use bases are concentrated in Okinawa, and Okinawan people continue to suffer from various accidents, incidents, and environmental problems caused by the bases. It argues that in forcefully pushing forward with the Henoko base construction, ”Our right to self-determination and human rights have been neglected.”
The Okinawa prefectural government is also considering sending the same documents to U.S. congress members with influence in deliberations on the U.S. defense budget.
On the afternoon of November 12, at a hall in Naha, the All-Okinawa Council or Shimagurumi-kaigi, a group that “aims to realize the goals of the 2013 ‘Kempakusho’ statement and open up a new future for Okinawa,” held a ceremony to officially announce the formation of a delegation to the United States. The 26-member delegation will visit California and Washington D.C. from November 15 to 21. There, they will explain the current situation in Okinawa, including Governor Takeshi Onaga’s revocation of the Henoko land reclamation permit and the Okinawan people’s strong opposition to the new Henoko base construction. They will work to convince the U.S. side to revisit the Henoko relocation plan. In addition to visiting the offices of U.S. congress members, they will also organize a demonstration in front of the White House together with members of U.S. citizens’ groups and labor unions, and are planning to hold symposia in California and Washington D.C. regarding the Futenma relocation issue.
In September, the city council of Berkeley, California passed a resolution opposing the Henoko base construction. The All-Okinawa Council delegates will meet with Berkeley city council members, and will also visit the offices of California’s congressional representatives. The delegates will also meet with San Francisco city council members to discuss the possibility of passing a similar resolution opposing the Henoko base construction in San Francisco.
In Washington D.C., the delegates will visit the offices of around 40 Congress members from both the House and the Senate, particularly those involved in U.S. military base issues, environmental issues, and Asia-Pacific policy.
Morimasa Goya, chairman of Kanehide Group, will lead the delegation. The delegates come from all areas of society, and include Okinawa prefectural assembly members, various city, town and village council members, business leaders, labor leaders, and students.
At the ceremony, delegation leader Goya stated, “All 1.4 million Okinawans share the same fervent wish. It is winter in Washington D.C. now, but the attitude of the U.S. government is sure to be even colder. But we will not give up. If we are persistent in advocating for Okinawa, there is hope.”
On November 3, representatives of prefectural assembly governing parties, civic groups, and the business community held a meeting at the prefectural headquarters of the Workers Union in Izumizaki, Naha to establish a new organization aimed at stopping the construction of a new base in Henoko. The representatives decided to hold an inauguration assembly at the end of November. The tentative event name is “All-Okinawa Meeting To Stop Construction of A New Base in Henoko.” The administrative board consists of 22 groups that participated in the meeting. The organization aims to work on preventing the new base’s construction from a wide range of angles.
A meeting to establish the organization’s set up will be held on November 14. Representatives will determine co-leaders, an executive office, and a charter. Prefectural Assembly Member Yonekichi Shinzato was appointed to serve as a leader of the set-up phase. The organization will consider creating a system to coordinate the activities of affiliated groups, sponsors, individuals and the administration board.
The new organization plans to set up an executive committee to arrange for a larger-scale assembly in future. While many groups are working together to prevent the new base’s construction, this is the first organization consisting of business communities and conservative groups.
At the meeting, the group will plan activities aiming to intensify the protest action in Henoko as a response to the government launching the construction. As a matter of policy, the organization will not have direct involvement in elections. However, Shinzato explained, “The importance of the election will be expressed in a charter.”
Naha City selected Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell to be international goodwill honorary citizen on November 4.
Honolulu City in Hawaii, the United States, has a sister-city relationship with Naha City. At an award ceremony held at the City Council Main Meeting Hall, Mayor Caldwell stated, “this bond has been made through the effort of citizens of Naha City and Okinawan people living in Honolulu.” He said he hoped to further develop the friendship
This is the 13th honorary citizen award to be given by Naha City, and the fourth to go to a Mayor of Honolulu City.
The honorary citizen award was given to acknowledge the effort Mayor Caldwell made towards developing the friendship and goodwill between the cities when he visited Naha to celebrate the 55th anniversary year of the sister-city establishment.
The municipal assembly voted unanimously for the selection proposed by the city authorities at the special municipal meeting for November. Naha Mayor Mikiko Shiroma handed over the certificate of commendation and a commemorative gift at the award ceremony held after the meeting.
Unjustified oppression of non-violent protest activity is not acceptable. The government must put an immediate stop to excessive security measures threatening the human rights of citizens.
For the first time, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department has sent more than 100 riot police members to patrol Camp Schwab’s gate to facilitate the construction of a new base in Henoko, Nago. One man was arrested on the spot on suspicion of obstructing officers on duty, and another was injured and carried away in an ambulance.
This is an abnormal situation. At a regular meeting in September, the prefectural Public Safety Commission called for “continued careful attention” to be given during patrolling of the Camp Schwab gate.
The Public Safety Commission feared a contingency arising due to the behavior of the police. The Metropolitan Police Department’s deployment of the riot police is precisely the kind of excessive security measure that the Commission had feared.
The protests to prevent the construction of the new base are founded in a common desire to escape the oppression of military bases that have continuously endangered the lives and property of Okinawans for seventy years since the end of World War II. The protests are fully protected by the right to free speech guaranteed by the Constitution of Japan.
The sit-ins and demonstrations held near the Camp Schwab gate represent a minimal expression of opposition to the Abe administration’s forceful implementation of the new base construction. It is unacceptable to try to suppress such opposition with brute force.
The arrest of one man is also of dubious justifiability. Footage taken by Ryukyu Shimpo reporters and other citizens show that a police officer’s hand first reached out toward the man’s back, and the man, losing his balance, fell toward the officer with his right leg lifting up.
We must thoroughly investigate who actually initiated the clash leading to the man’s arrest. We must not allow unjustified arrests on suspicion of obstructing official duties the moment citizens resist intentional provocations by the police.
Citizens forcibly removed from the area directly in front of the gate are also being temporarily detained in an area of the road surrounded by a metal fence. Going so far as to detain citizens after they have been removed from the scene constitutes “preventative detention” and is unjustifiable.
Tatsushi Yokota, a lawyer who has been involved in the lawsuit in which two Takae residents were charged with obstructing traffic while protesting the helipad construction there, criticized the police’s behavior, saying, “To confine people to a single spot without a warrant is a transgression of the law.” We must not ignore legally questionable actions by the police.
The government has filed a request for administrative review, demanding a stay of execution in response to the governor of Okinawa’s revocation of the land reclamation permit. In filing this request the government is acting in the guise of a private entity and making a mockery of fair legal procedure.
To alleviate the abnormal situation in front of the Camp Schwab gate, the government should immediately put a halt to the base construction and remove the Metropolitan Police Department’s riot police from Okinawa.
On November 4, more than 100 riot police officers from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department joined security in front of the Camp Schwab gate as the protest against relocating Futenma Air Station’s to Henoko intensifies. It is the first time a riot police squad from outside of Okinawa has joined security at the site. The typical number of riot police officers involved in security at Camp Schwab is 100 people, but on this day, there were more than 200 officers. In a scuffle in front of the gate between residents of Nago City and riot police, one protester in his sixties kicked a riot police officer and was arrested on the spot. The protester is being charged with interfering with a public servant’s execution of their duties. The scene at the site of the scuffle was extremely chaotic. Some people who fell down in the scuffle had to be taken away in ambulances. As many as 210 people had gathered on this day to oppose construction and called out in protest, saying things such as “go back to Tokyo.”
Vehicles carrying riot police from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department entered Camp Schwab at around 6:20 a.m. More than 200 riot police members, including prefectural police officers, started trying to remove around 130 sit-in protesters at about 6:55 a.m., but were unable to completely remove them. After around 30 minutes, the riot police temporarily withdrew. During that time, one construction vehicle and several vehicles carrying construction workers entered through the gate.
At about 9 a.m. one person after another was knocked to the ground in a clash between protesters, who were lining up alongside the national highway, and the riot police squad that was trying to block the footpath. During the stand-off, 23-year-old Atsushi Nio hit the back of his head on the ground and was taken away in an ambulance. He suffered a severe neck injury and was advised to take a week of bed rest. The man in his sixties charged with interfering with the work of a public servant is denying the claim. Before being restrained, the man was using a loudspeaker to call for both citizens and riot police to bring an end to the mayhem.
It has not been confirmed whether any major construction is taking place on Oura Bay where the new base is to be built. However, construction-related works by operating heavy equipment were observed on the shore within Camp Schwab.
On November 6, Okinawa Governor Takeshi Onaga sent a document to the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Keiichi Ishii, conveying his rejection of the national government’s recommendation that he retract his revocation of the landfill permit for a new military base in Henoko, Nago. The governments of Japan and the United States plan to relocate the U.S. Marine Corp Air Station in Ginowan to Camp Schwab in Henoko, including building a runway on reclaimed land on Oura Bay.
Governor Onaga said at a news conference held on the same day, “I cannot follow the recommendation by the national government. I believe the revocation is legal.”
The land minister is likely to bring the case to the high court at the end of this month alleging the governor’s decision to revoke the landfill is illegal based on a subrogation clause in the Local Government Act.
The prefectural government sent an open letter to the land minister on November 6 asking five questions regarding what it claimed were inconsistent decisions made by him. The questions include: “Why did the land minister identify the defense ministry’s Okinawa bureau as a private individual entity when the bureau filed an appeal against the decision made by the governor, while the minister referred to the bureau as an administrative agency in a subrogation proceeding?” The prefectural government has requested a response from the land ministry to the questions to be provided by November 13.
It is unusual for a prefectural government to send an open letter to a national government minister in Japan.
The prefectural government’s lawyers revealed at the news conference that the governor will outline his argument in a verbal testimony to be given at the high court next week.
The governor said, “The director of the Okinawa Defense Bureau and the land minister are selectively using their titles according to their convenience. The national government has installed many riot police officers from Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department at Henoko. They are trying to force the relocation project by their bare knuckles.
The government should not just say perfunctory words but perform its duty and give clear explanations to citizens.”
Regarding a recent controversy involving an environmental oversight panel set up by the defense bureau receiving donations from contractors involved in the Henoko relocation project, the governor said, “It has deepened the suspicion of citizens over the project.”
Webcam(Kokusai Street)
