The Supreme Court of Japan rejects the appeal of the Okinawa Prefectural Government regarding the relocation of US military airports in Japan
According to a report by Kyodo News Agency on the 24th, the Supreme Court of Japan made a decision on a lawsuit filed by Okinawa Prefecture regarding the opposition between the Japanese government and the Okinawa Prefectural Government over the relocation of the US military's Putenma Base in Japan. It did not accept the appeal filed by Okinawa Prefecture and upheld the ruling made by the Fukuoka High Court Naha Branch in March this year that the Okinawa Prefectural Government lost the lawsuit.
The focus of the conflict in this case is the land reclamation construction in the Yanyegu area near the relocation site of Putianjian Base. Due to the soft geological conditions in some areas, it is not suitable to build facilities such as airplane runways. The Japanese Ministry of Defense has proposed a construction design change plan, and the Okinawa Prefectural Government has made a decision not to approve it. Subsequently, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism of Japan intervened and deemed the decision of the Okinawa Prefectural Government not to approve it invalid. The Okinawa Prefectural Government went to court with the Japanese Central Government for this matter.
In 1996, the Japanese and American governments agreed to relocate the US military base located in Putenma, Okinawa Prefecture to Nagoya, Nagao City. The relocation required land reclamation and the construction of two new aircraft runways. The people of Okinawa strongly oppose this and demand that the US military base be completely relocated from Okinawa. In 2013, then Okinawa Prefectural Governor Masahiro Nakai issued a land reclamation permit. In 2018, the then governor Weng Changxiong revoked this permit and called for the suspension of construction on the grounds that the ancient foundation of the border was soft. In 2019, then Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism, Kiichi Ishii, ruled that Okinawa Prefecture should withdraw its administrative decision denying construction permits. The Okinawa Prefectural Government has raised objections to this and has begun to continuously resist the central government through legal means.