MILITARY DRILL:
A US-made AH-1W Super Cobra helicopter launches flares (top) as soldiers and tanks launch a ground attack (bottom) during an annual drill at the military base in the eastern city of Hualien. Taiwanese troops staged live-fire exercises to simulate fending off an attempted invasion, as the island's main threat China steps up pressure on President Tsai Ing-Wen.
TOKYO: A mayor opposed to a US Marines base on Okinawa is leading his ruling party rival as he seeks re- election in a poll on Sunday, raising the prospect the base will remain a thorn in US- Japan ties.
Japan’s central government and Okinawa authorities have been at odds for years over a plan, first agreed between Tokyo and Washington in 1996, to relocate the Marines’ Futenma air base from an urban part of Okinawa to the less populated Henoko district of the northern city of Nago.
Base opponents such as Nago mayor Susumu Inamine and Okinawa governor Takeshi Onaga oppose the move and want Futenma’s functions moved off Okinawa entirely.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government wants to forge ahead with the relocation.
Many Okinawa residents associate the US military presence with crime, pollution and accidents, and resentment has been rekindled by a spate of incidents involving US military aircraft.
Last month, a window fell from a US helicopter onto a school sports field, fanning safety concerns.
Inamine, who is seeking a third four-year-term with opposition party support, is leading challenger Taketoyo Toguchi, 56, who has the backing of Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party ( LDP) and its junior coalition partner, the Komeito party, according to a Yomiuri newspaper survey published yesterday.
A win for Toguchi would make it easier for Abe’s government to move ahead with the relocation plan.
Work is underway for construction of a Futenma replacement facility, but the Nago mayor’s approval is needed for some aspects so Inamine could cause further delays if re- elected. — Reuters