TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the governor of the southern island of Okinawa clashed on Friday over the relocation of a contentious US air base, an irritant in US-Japan ties, a week before Abe’s high-profile visit to the United States.

Okinawa, host to the bulk of US forces in Japan, and Abe’s government have been at odds since anti-base conservative Takeshi Onaga was elected governor last Nove­mber and Okinawa ca­n­d­­i­dates from Abe’s ruling party lost in a general election.

Tensions over plans to move the US Marines’ Futenma base to land to be reclaimed from waters near the town of Henoko in northern Okinawa rose last month when Onaga ordered a halt to underwater survey work. The prefecture fears the survey is damaging coral reefs.

Onaga insists the base be moved outside Okinawa, where many residents have long resented the fact that the prefecture hosts nearly half the US military forces in Japan.

Published in Dawn, April 18th, 2015

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