The Okinawa Prefectural Government of Japan appealed to the Supreme Court over the relocation of the U.S. Military Futenma Base

Tokyo, 28 Dec (Xinhua) -- Regarding the relocation of the US military's Futenma base, the Okinawa Prefectural Government of Japan said on the 28th that it had formally appealed to the Supreme Court on the same day because it was dissatisfied with the relevant judgment of the Naha branch of the Fukuoka High Court.

In order to promote the relocation of the US military's Futenma base to the Border Nogu area, the Naha District Court of Japan ruled in the first instance last year that the Okinawa County Government should withdraw its indictment against the central government's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. On the 15th of this month, the Naha branch of the Fukuoka High Court rejected the appeal of the Okinawa Prefectural Government on the grounds that Okinawa Prefecture did not have the status of a plaintiff, and upheld the first-instance judgment of the Naha District Court.

In 1996, the Japanese and U.S. governments agreed to relocate the U.S. military base in Putenma, Okinawa Prefecture, to Bannoko, Nago City, which would require land reclamation and two new airslides. The people of Okinawa expressed strong opposition to this and demanded that the US military base be completely moved out of Okinawa. In 2013, Masahiro Nakai, then governor of Okinawa Prefecture, issued a permit to reclaim land. In 2018, then Governor Weng Changxiongzhi revoked this permit on the grounds that the ancient foundation of the frontier was soft and stopped construction. In 2019, Keiichi Ishii, then minister of land, infrastructure and transport, ruled that Okinawa Prefecture should withdraw its administrative decision denying construction permits. The Okinawa prefectural government objected to this and began to continuously fight against the central government through legal means.

On the one hand, the Okinawa prefectural government suspended construction by not issuing construction permits for land reclamation, and on the other hand, advocated the protection of corals and rejected the "coral transplantation plan" proposed by the Japanese government to transplant corals from the predetermined landfill area of Bennogu to other places. On July 28 of this year, under the ruling of Japan's Supreme Court, Okinawa Prefectural Governor Tamaki Danny approved the necessary "harvesting permit" for coral transplantation, and proposed additional conditions for "avoiding high temperature periods that are not suitable for corals to survive." However, the Okinawa Defense Bureau of the Japanese Ministry of Defense began transplanting operations in the hot weather the day after the ruling, and Okinawa Prefecture withdrew the coral "harvesting permit" on the grounds that the Okinawa Defense Agency did not comply with the appropriate conditions. On the 28th of this month, Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries ruled that Okinawa Prefecture should cancel the decision on "revoking the coral transplant permit", that is, the final recognition of corals in the ancient waters of the border field can be transplanted. (End)