Japan Press Weekly

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2013 June 26 - July 2 [US FORCES]

Citizens protest against another Osprey deployment to Okinawa

Amid a protest from citizens, a high-ranking defense ministry official on July 1 visited Iwakuni City (Yamaguchi Prefecture) to explain to the city mayor about the plan to bring 12 Osprey aircraft to the U.S. Iwakuni Base at the end of July before their deployment to Okinawa.

Parliamentary Secretary of Defense Sato Akira said to Iwakuni Mayor Fukuda Yoshihiko that the Ospreys will fly to the U.S. Marine Corps Futenma Base in Ginowan City (Okinawa Prefecture) after maintenance that will take one week to complete.

Fukuda approved the plan while saying, “As a mayor who is obliged to protect the safety and peace of the city residents, I am reluctant to accept it.”

MV-22 Osprey is a military tilt-rotor aircraft with vertical takeoff and landing capability. It is also known as a “widow maker”, as it has been involved in a number of fatal crashes.

The U.S. and Japanese governments in July last year forcibly brought the first 12 Ospreys to Iwakuni and deployed them to Okinawa in October in defiance of strong protests by local residents.

Since then, the aircraft have repeatedly flown over densely populated residential areas and conducted night flight training exercises in violation of the Japan-U.S. agreement. The additional deployment of Ospreys will increase the frequency of flights and impose more military burdens on Okinawa.

Related past articles

> Shii opposes Osaka’s proposal to allow use of civil airport for Osprey flight training [June 7, 2013]

> JCP Ichida criticizes Hashimoto’s offer to host Osprey training [June 4, 2013]