Don't allow new U.S. base on Okinawa: JCP assembly member

Ignoring a local demand for setting a 15-year time limit to the use of a new U.S. military base on Okinawa, the Japanese and U.S. governments are attempting to construct the state-of-the-art base.

A Japanese Communist Party member of the Okinawa prefectural assembly demanded that the new base plan be withdrawn.

In the assembly session on February 25, Tamaki Nobuko, JCP, took up the issue of the new U.S. base plan in connection with the relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps Futenma Air Station.

She urged that Governor Inamine Keiichi, who promised to put a 15-year time limit to the use of the base, should not accept the new base plan unless his word is kept.

The governor stated as before that the central government will announce its final conclusion on this matter.

On another plan to construct a training site for the U.S. Army Special Training Unit at U.S. Camp Hansen in Okinawa, JCP Tamaki pointed out that this plan, a new facility in Okinawa, is designed to reinforce the operational capability of U.S. forces in Okinawa. Such a plan must be retracted, she stressed.

Saying that details are not yet available, the governor dodged the issue. (end)