Japanese mayor opposed to US airbase re-elected

A Japanese mayor who has strongly opposed the construction of a controversial new US airbase in the southern city of Nago has been reelected to a second term.

The Sunday victory of Mayor Susumu Inamine is considered a blow to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who supports a plan to relocate a controversial US airbase on Okinawa island to Nago.

Inamine told his supporters that his election showed that the citizens of Nago are against the plan to relocate Futenma air base to their city.

“The voters were able to demonstrate their will” as to whether to accept the relocation, Inamine said after his victory.

He also vowed to block the construction of the base by denying permits for the project.

Washington and Tokyo first agreed in 1996 to relocate the base from a more congested part of Okinawa to Nago; but, opposition from local people and environmental groups has prevented construction in the small town of nearly 60,000 people.

The controversy resurfaced late last month, when the governor of Okinawa gave the go-ahead for land reclamation to build the new air base, whose runways would extend over water from the existing US military’s Camp Schwab.

Opponents of the project filed a lawsuit last week seeking to invalidate the governor’s approval.

According to the relocation plans, the Futenma air station would be moved from Ginowan city to the thinly populated Henoko district in Nago, due to concerns over aircraft noises, accidents in civilian areas and rampant crimes, such as rape, by the US soldier stationed at the base.

The move is reportedly part of a broader plan to reduce the US military’s presence in Okinawa, currently home to 30,000 American troops.

The latest opinion polls by Okinawa media outlets indicate that about 84 percent of Nago residents oppose moving the base to Henoko, but Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party, which supports the move, is trying to win voters with pledges of more development funds for the city.