Okinawa sues Japan gov't over US base relocation plan

NAHA -- The Okinawa Prefectural Government has sued the central government over the ongoing construction of a U.S. Marine base off the Henoko district of the prefectural city of Nago.

The suit demands that the land minister retract his decision annulling Okinawa's rejection of the Defense Ministry's construction change application for the plan to relocate U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in the local city of Ginowan to Henoko.

The prefectural government announced the move to take the dispute to court on the morning of Aug. 12. The suit was filed with the Fukuoka High Court Naha branch later that day.

In April 2020, the Defense Ministry applied for changes in the plan to drive piles to reinforce the weak foundation at the Henoko construction site. This required large-scale ground improvement work, and as a result the construction cost ballooned from the initial 230 billion yen (about $17.3 billion) to 930 billion yen or more, while nine years and three months was added to the initially planned five-year construction schedule.

In November 2021, Okinawa denied the Defense Ministry's application, stating that, "In addition to causing extensive damage to the environment, there is no technical certainty." The prefectural government also claimed that the open-ended landfill project for the base would mean the Futenma air base could not be returned to Japan quickly.

The Defense Ministry then requested that land minister Tetsuo Saito -- who has jurisdiction over the Public Water Body Reclamation Act -- review the Okinawa government's decision based on the Administrative Complaint Review Act. In April this year, the land minister annulled Okinawa's decision, saying that its rejection of the Defense Ministry's application "was an illegal overstepping and abuse of its discretionary power."

The Okinawa government then requested the Central and Local Government Dispute Management Council, an internal affairs ministry third-party panel, to review the land minister's decision, and that the panel recommend the decision be retracted. Okinawa argued that the land minister's verdict constituted "unlawful" central government involvement under the local autonomy law, but in July this year the dispute management council denied Okinawa's claim and dismissed the request.

Aug. 12 was the deadline to appeal the council's decision under the local autonomy law.

(Japanese original by Hiroshi Higa and Nozomu Takeuchi, Naha Bureau)