A Perspective from Japan

Back to Square One: The Futenma Agreement

 

Cultural News 2009 February

 

 

By Motoaki Kamiura, Military Analyst

Translated by Alan Gleason

 

    Incoming Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has assured Japan that under the Obama administration, the U.S.-Japan alliance is still a “cornerstone” of American policy in Asia. However, an old issue has resurfaced that already threatens to disturb that alliance. The 1996 accord between the two governments on the transfer of the U.S. Marine Corps’ Futenma Air Station to another location in Okinawa has unraveled.

 

   Sitting smack in the middle of the densely populated Ginowan district of central Okinawa island, Futenma has long attracted local ire for its noise pollution and the occasional tendency of U.S. aircraft to crash in nearby neighborhoods. This friction prompted the U.S. and Japanese governments to agree to move Futenma’s flight operations by 2014 to a new facility to be built in the less populated northern part of the island.

 

    But the initial plan -- a 2,000-meter runway to be built on landfill offshore at Henoko, Nago city -- foundered on demands by then-governor Keiichi Inamine that the facility be available for joint military-civilian use and that U.S. forces vacate the premises in 15 years. The Americans rejected these conditions.

 

    The two governments then agreed on an alternative plan to build two 1,800-meter runways in a V configuration onshore at Camp Schwab, an existing Marine base adjacent to Henoko. But the local populace, enraged that it had not been consulted, galvanized in its opposition to the new plan.

 

     Eventually, however, the locals grudgingly consented to the Camp Schwab alternative when the Japanese government threatened to cut off its annual infusion of 10 billion yen (US$100 million) into the northern district for “economic redevelopment.”

 

     But this consent came with strings attached. The Okinawans demanded that the Camp Schwab runways be moved offshore onto landfill, ostensibly because the onshore location would put the homes of local residents directly under the flight path. The Japanese government rejected this demand, arguing that it was just a ploy by the Okinawans to make more money off the landfill construction required offshore. Once again, the Futenma relocation project ran aground.

 

     In the Prefectural Assembly elections in June 2008, Okinawa’s opposition party, which had come out against the onshore construction at Camp Schwab, swept into power with a solid majority of seats. In July the Assembly passed a resolution opposing the relocation plan. Since then, the Alternative Facility Council, a coalition of supporters of relocation, including representatives of the national and prefectural governments, Nago city, and local businesspeople, has gone dormant, with no plans announced for further meetings.

 

     Meanwhile, on the national level, the opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), favored to win the Lower House election slated for later this year, has pledged to replace the long-dominant Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) administration with a new one. The DPJ has revealed that it is “studying” the possibility of wiping the slate clean of all Futenma relocation plans agreed upon to date by the U.S. and Japanese governments. If so, the entire process could be sent back to the drawing board.

 

    Futenma could thus become a major thorn in the sides of both the Obama administration and a new DPJ-led government. Meanwhile, as the issue awaits resolution, residents of Ginowan continue to worry about aircraft from Futenma crashing into their houses.

 

Motoaki Kamiura is a Tokyo-based military analyst. When the world is in crisis, he appears frequently on national television programs.

    Alan Gleason is an editor, writer, and Japanese-English translator. He lives in Tokyo.