TOKYO: A lawsuit demanding local bureaucrats stop blocking the construction of a US military base in Okinawa was filed by Japan’s central government on Friday, the latest in the spat between Tokyo and the southern island.
Tokyo wants to move the unpopular US airbase in a crowded residential district on Okinawa’s main island to a sparsely populated area in its northern part, but many residents want the base moved off the island altogether.
In Friday’s suit, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government asked the court in Okinawa’s capital city Naha to declare that a move by the region’s governor to block construction for the base is illegal.
“The national government’s hardline attitude toward Okinawa’s US base issue is extreme,” Okinawan governor Takeshi Onaga told reporters in Tokyo, citing local election results showing voters favour moving the base off the island.
Published in Dawn, July 23rd, 2016
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