Oral Argument against Landfill

Governor of Okinawa Denny Tamaki made an unusual appearance to the court on Monday to submit his opinion on the building of new base for United States Force in Henoko, Nago city. “Execution by proxy of the national government, which violates the independency of Okinawa, cannot be accepted,” said Tamaki in the first oral argument at Naha Branch of Fukuoka High Court on the trial over the request of national government to change the design of new base. Accepting demand from Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, the court closed the trial on the day one. 

The national government submitted in 2020 a change of plan for the construction of new base, which was to reinforce the soil of sea base. The government of Okinawa rejected the plan and Tokyo ordered Okinawa accepting it, but Okinawa did not obey, and then Tokyo filed a lawsuit. The Supreme Court decided in September that the order of national government was lawful. Seeing that Okinawa did not approve the plan by the deadline, the national government filed another lawsuit for the execution by proxy.

 

In the oral argument, Tamaki insisted on that public opinion would be public interest. “According to the result of latest three gubernatorial elections and prefectural referendum in which 430 thousand of people in Okinawa, or 72% of the eligible voters, expressed the will against the landfill, public opinion is more than obvious,” said Tamaki. While the national government reiterates that building the base in Henoko is one and only choice for removing danger of Futenma Air Base, Okinawa argues that construction of landfill is difficult and takes time, then Futenma remains going nowhere.

 

Tamaki also reminded of the post-war history of Okinawa. “Okinawa was made a bulwark against aggression to the mainland during the war,” argued Tamaki, “and detached from the mainland after the war under the administration of US military. We have been suffering from confiscation of land with “guns and bulldozers,” consecutive crashes of military aircrafts, murders and rapes by US military personnel and contamination of well-water by leaked fuels. Having a half century passed from the reversion, 70.3% of US facilities in Japan are concentrated in Okinawa which occupies only 0.6% of whole land of Japan.”

 

Decentralization Law 2000 determines the parity between the national and local government. Even how the construction of new military base may comply with national interest, the decision needs to be balanced with local interest. It needs a sense of informed consent. “The national government has to make constant efforts for achieving understanding from the nationals on the necessity of thinking about security and sharing the burden of US military base, if the government argues security as a public interest. How much those efforts have made?” asked Tamaki.

 

The chief judge said that the date of decision would be noticed later. Tamaki regarded it as an intention for deliberation.

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