JCP in Okinawa to help overcome slump in tourism in U.S. base-ridden island

Tourism is Okinawa's major industry. It is now experiencing a slump which
hotel operators did not expect six or seven weeks ago. Many hotel bookings
are being canceled for fear that Okinawa could be a target of terrorist
attacks due to the U.S.-led military retaliation in Afghanistan.

About 75 percent of U.S. military bases in Japan are concentrated on the
main island of Okinawa, a prefecture made up of numerous small islands with
a population of about 1.3 million.

Japanese Communist Party Okinawa Prefectural Committee members on October
23 held a meeting with the Okinawa Prefectural Association of Hotels to
discuss this problem.

A survey by the association of 255 hotels has found that about 230,000
people canceled their hotel bookings, causing a loss of about 3 billion yen
(24 million dollars) in revenues.

The biggest cancellation came from high schools which called off their
annual study trip to Okinawa for 180,000 students. Before the terrorist
incident, Okinawa used to be a popular site for school excursions for senior
class students.

This year the number of hotel bookings by high schools was the biggest
ever. But after the terrorist attacks on the United States followed by the
U.S.-led retaliatory war, hotel operators are laying off their employees.

The association's director Oshiro Yoshinaga said, "The adverse effect on
tourism is a reflection of the contradiction; the central government
emphasizes that Okinawa is safe but at the same time deploys the riot police
to guard U.S. bases in Okinawa."

Oshiro said that the prefectural association of hotels and inns called on
the central government to compensate them for the loss from canceled tours
on the grounds that the damage was caused by the fact that 75 percent of
U.S. military bases in Japan are concentrated in Okinawa.

Hokama Hisako, JCP Okinawa Prefectural Committee vice chair, referred to
this request and said, "Peace is essential for tourism to develop." The JCP
prefectural assembly group leader encouraged the hotel and inn owners to
join forces with the JCP to achieve a base-free Okinawa. (end)