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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 March 2025
The year 2016 might turn out to be a decisive one in the long-running contest between the Japanese state and Okinawa prefecture over the construction of a new base for the US Marine Corps at Henoko on Oura Bay, although it seems that this is far from being the first time on which I have written of a prospective year of crisis and change in what has become known as the “Okinawa problem,” only to find as the year wore on that the crisis steadily deepened without resolution. It is clear anyway that this will be a year of elections and court proceedings, and that it will also almost certainly be one of deepening confrontation between the popular Okinawan resistance on one side and the forces of the Abe state with their monopoly of violence and growing readiness to use it on the other.
1 This analysis may be read as a continuation and expansion of the following recently posted essays: Gavan McCormack, “To the courts, to the Streets: Okinawa at December 2015,” and Igarashi Takayoshi, “Reclamation, Licensing, and the Law: Japan's courts take up the Henoko issue,” translated by Sandi Aritza.
2 Gavan McCormack, “Introduction: The Experts Report and the Future of Okinawa,” The Asia-Pacific Journal, July 20, 2015. See also Sakurai Kunitoshi, translated by Gavan McCormack, “To Whom does the Sea Belong? Questions Posed by the Henoko Assessment,” July 20, 2015.
3 While it refrains from dropping concrete blocks to the ocean floor, it continues its boring survey and it continues to deliver truckloads of materials to the site.
4 “Sakima-Shimura shi ga gekisen, muto haso de kekko, Ginowan shicho sen josei chosa,” Okinawa taimusu, January 20, 2016.
5 “‘Han Henoko’ ‘Chiiki shinko’ wakareru yukensha, Ginowan shichosen,” Asahi shimbun, January 18, 2016.
6 “Ginowan shichosen de genshoku kensen, Abe kancho no dizuni yuchi ga urame,” Nikkan Gendai, January 18, 2016.
7 “Sakima-Shimura shi ga gekisen,” op. cit.
8 Press Conference by the Defense Minister Nakatani. October 13, 2015. See also “Minister delivers counterattack over Okinawa's repeal of Futenma landfill work,” Japan Times, October 14, 2015.
9 Miyamoto Kenichi, “Okinawa no jichi to Nihon no minshushugi,” Sekai, January 2016, p. 75-83, at p. 76.
10 Press Conference by Defense Minister Nakatani, October 27, 2015. See also “Minister voids Okinawan Governor's blockage of Futenma landfill work,” Japan Times, October 27, 2015.
11 “Tokyo overturns Futenma works plan,” Japan Times, November 1, 2015.
12 “Ginowan shimin ga Okinnawa chiji teiso,” Okinawa taimusu, October 21, 2015.
13 “Okinawa snubs response over landfill approval revocation,” Japan Times, November 6, 2015, and “Okinawa rebuffs state order on landfill work, court battle looms,” Japan Times, November 11, 2015.
14 This is a five-person unit within the government's Department of General Affairs, set up in 2000 but to date only twice called upon to adjudicate a dispute and on neither occasion – both matters of relatively minor importance – making any ruling against the government. (“Keiso-i handan wa yosoku konnan,” Okinawa taimusu, November 2, 2015.)
15 “Kokoku sosho teiki, Onaga chiji kaiken,” Ryukyu shimpo, December 26, 2015.
16 “Okinawa ken toshiake ni kuni o teiso, Henoko torikeshi o teishi ni taiko,” Okinawsa taimusu, December 12, 2015/.
17 Details here from the second day of oral pleadings, as reported in “Dai shikko sosho benron – tettei shnri de honshitsu ni semare,” ed., Ryukyu shimpo, January 10, 2016.
18 Quoted in the Governor's press conference on January 20 by his counsel, Takeshita Isao. (Shikko teishi sosho, chiji boto hatsugen, ichimon itto yoshi,“ Ryukyu shimpo, January 20, 2016.
19 Press Conference by the Defense Minister Nakatani, October 27, 2015.
20 “Keiso-i no kyakka, seiji ga towarete iru,” Ryukyu shimpo, December 26, 2015.
21 For Ota's speech, and accompanying analysis, see Chalmers Johnson, ed. Okinawa: Cold War Island. Cardiff, California: Japan Policy Research Institute, 1999.
22 Urashima Etsuko, Miruku yo ya yagate. Inpakuto, 2015, pp. 155, 245, 256.
23 “Futenma soon sosho, seiji kokka to ieru no ka,” Ryukyu shimpo, June 12, 2015. See also “Futenma soon sosho' iho jotai o hochi suru na,” Okinawa taimusu, June 12, 2015.
24 “Henoko isetsu, ‘kuni no kettei iho’ jumin teiso,” Mainichi Shimbun, December 25, 2015.
25 Shimabukuro Ryota, “Seifu no aseri hanei,” Ryukyu shimpo, December 15, 2015.
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