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The Okinawa prefectural government fields a fresh lawsuit with Naha District Court against the central government, which aims to block ongoing construction work for the relocation of a US Marine Corps base on Monday.
The latest lawsuit highlights the longtime contention between the central and local government over the plan to move US Futenma air station from the Okinawan city of Ginowan to the less-populated Henko coastal area of Nago.
With Japan Coast Guard officials keeping guard, a crane lowers stones contained in large nets to build a seawall off the Henoko coastal area in Nago, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan, on April 25, 2017.
The Okinawan government argues that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government's work on the new site is illegal by no permission from the local governor for demolishing rock off the coast. The previous permit is expired at the end of March.
The permission follows prefecture's rule on fisheries adjustment as to grant fishing rights. The local government believed that the new military base's construction would undoubtedly include crushing rock.
The prefecture also urges the central government to halt its construction until Naha District Court gives the judgment.
"The government is moving with such haste to build the new base that it is acting without permission," said Okinawa governor Takeshi Onaga.
"That absolutely cannot be tolerated."
Protesters in canoes approach Japan Coast Guard boats in the sea in the Henoko coastal area of Nago in Japan's southernmost island prefecture of Okinawa, on July 25, 2017
Correspondingly, the central government plans to disprove the prefectural government's complaint, claiming as a local fisheries cooperative had given up the fishing rights, construction does not need the permission.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga on Monday's press conference responded that he would not make any comment on this lawsuit but indicated that the government's construction would continue.
In 2015 Onaga declared to abolish administrative license on new base construction by his predecessor. The local government and the central government then confronted at Japan's Supreme Court.
Last December, the Supreme Court finally pronounced that central government wins, allowing the move to proceed. Accordingly, Abe's government began constructing seawalls for the new US military base in April.
Many people in Okinawa, where the bulk of US military facilities lies in Japan, want the Futenma base to be removed outside the prefecture altogether. They have been continuously protesting.
"The state will be questioned again for its stance to push through the construction of the new base while leaving behind the feelings of the people of Okinawa," Onaga told reporters.
(CGTN)
