Relocation of Henoko Okinawa Prefecture's national recommendation "cannot judge by the deadline"

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism has recommended that Okinawa Prefecture's decision to disapprove the design change of the relocation plan of the US military Futenma base be canceled and that it be approved by the 20th.

Regarding this, Okinawa Prefecture needs to scrutinize the contents, so it answered that it could not be judged by the deadline of 20 days.

Regarding the plan to relocate the U.S. military Futenma base to Henoko, Nago City, the Ministry of Defense applied to Okinawa Prefecture for a design change in order to improve the soft ground at the planned landfill site, but Governor Tamagusuku applied for a soft ground last November. The application was disapproved due to insufficient ground survey.

As a countermeasure, the Ministry of Defense has filed a request for examination to revoke the disapproval of Okinawa Prefecture from the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, which has jurisdiction over the landfill law, based on the Administrative Appeal Act.

In response to this request, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism canceled the disapproval on the 8th of this month and recommended to Okinawa Prefecture to approve the design change by the 20th based on the Local Autonomy Law.

On the 20th, Okinawa Prefecture responded in writing to the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Saito, saying that it would not be possible to make a decision by the deadline of the 20th because the content of this recommendation needs to be scrutinized.

In response to this, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism is expected to instruct the prefecture to make more compulsory corrections to approve the design change.

Send a document requesting "dialogue" to Prime Minister Kishida, Governor of Okinawa Prefecture

In addition to the response sent to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, Governor Tamaki of Okinawa Prefecture sent a document requesting Prime Minister Kishida to hold a "dialogue" on the night of the 20th.

According to the document, "As we have repeatedly asked the government, it is extremely heavy that the overwhelming majority of the people in the prefectural vote held in February 2019 clearly showed the opposition. We believe that we should suspend the reclamation work of Henoko and respond to the dialogue with Okinawa Prefecture in order to solve the problem, and we request that we hold a dialogue again. "