Lawmakers inspect Okinawa's Awase Tideland to save coral reef just in time

Japan Press Weekly

Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

Lawmakers inspect Okinawa's Awase Tideland to save coral reef just in time

A cross-party group of Dietmembers visited Okinawa on February 5 and 6 to inspect the Awase Tideland on the eastern coast of Okinawa City, where the government resumed reclamation works by ignoring the local court decision that states that there is no viable rationale to use tax money for the project.

After the on-site inspection, they interviewed representatives of various organizations involved in the project and held talks with Okinawa's deputy governor.

Nihi Sohei, Japanese Communist Party representative in the House of Councilors, joined the team.

Despite the Naha District Court ruling last November that supported the residents' claim and ordered Okinawa City as well as Okinawa Prefecture not to use tax money to continue the reclamation because no economic rationality can be found in this project, the city and the prefecture appealed to a higher court and the central government resumed reclamation on January 15.

The Awase project is designed to construct an artificial island by reclaiming about 187 hectares of the total 290 hectares of the Awase Tideland in order to develop the area as a marine resort with hotels and tourist attractions. It is a project that will destroy the beautiful scenic resources.

About 96 hectares of tideland that nurtures coral reefs and other rare ecosystems will be on the verge of destruction if the first round of reclamation finishes in 2012.

The Awase Tideland reclamation project was initially developed when the government planned to dispose of the dirt dredged from construction works to establish a tax-free special free-trade zone (about 89 hectares) in the area facing east in the Awase Tideland, according to the cabinet's Okinawa Office.

After the inspection, JCP Nihi said to reporters, "The coral reef within the first reclamation project area is almost dead. The government plan that will eliminate race species of flora and fauna, including the coral reef, must be immediately stopped."

- Akahata, February 9, 2009