On the night of the 23rd in Akita City, where the deployment of the new interception missile system "Aegis Ashore" was temporarily planned, the first briefing session for local residents was held after the abandonment, and a series of apologies from the Ministry of Defense officials. I explained the background of.
Regarding "Aegis Ashore", the Ministry of Defense planned to deploy it at the Ground Self-Defense Force Shinya Exercise Area in Akita City, but in June last year, it was necessary to repair the missile itself for safe operation. I abandoned the plan as such.
For a year and a half after that, there was no place to explain to the residents, but on the night of the 23rd, the first briefing session was held in Akita City, and more than 100 people including the residents participated.
Michio Ichikawa, Director General of the Tohoku Defense Bureau, apologized and explained how he gave up, saying, "I'm sorry to have made the local people very worried since becoming a candidate site."
Participants criticized that the number of briefing sessions was only one, and asked them to explain why they considered deploying to the Shinya Exercise Area near the residential area in the first place.
There was also a request to "promise not to deploy similar facilities in the future," but the Ministry of Defense only stated that "we are not considering deploying'Aegis Ashore'."
The man who participated said, "I'm sorry I couldn't say anything about the future. I was wondering if the explanation was convincing to everyone."