¹ All four defeated LDP candidates, however, were then returned to Diet seats under the proportional representation “bloc” system, as part of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) slate for the Kyushu-Okinawa region.

² “Henoko asesu jokoku kikyaku, saikosei, jumin no shicho mitomezu,” Okinawa taimusu, 12 December 2014.

³ Yamaguchi Masanori, “Media ga hojinai Okinawa,” Shukan kinyobi, 13 July 2013, p. 58. For the background to the Takae struggle, Gavan McCormack and Satoko Oka Norimatsu, Resistant Islands: Okinawa Confronts Japan and the United States, Lanham, Rowman and Littlefield, 2012, pp. 168-172.

⁴ “Takae heripaddo, toshiake kogi haijo e, Bei ga rosokutai kanri,” Okinawa taimusu, 31 December 2014.

⁵ “GOJ applies to change Henoko construction: OPG to approve next month,” Ryukyu shimpo, 4 September 2014.

⁶ “Boeikyoku, Henoko ni kanpeki no keikaku,” Ryukyu shimpo, 21 November 2014.

⁷ “Suiro henko torisage Nakaima shi wa handan shikaku nashi,” editorial, Ryukyu shimpo, 29 November 2014.

⁸ “Henoko koho henko, ken ga boeikyoku ni 5 ji shitsumon no hoshin,” Ryukyu shimpo, 21 December 2014.

⁹ “‘Mendan moshiire fuhatsu’ seifu wa Okinawa no koe o kike,” editorial, Okinawa taimusu, 27 December 2014. Also “Chiji to no kaidan kyohi kenmin to no taiwa tozasu no ka,” editorial, Ryukyu shimpo, 28 December 2014.

¹⁰ “Henoko koho henko: Onaga shi ‘gatten ikanai’,” Okinawa taimusu, 6 December 2014.

¹¹ Text of his address on assuming office at “Onaga chiji kaiken, boto hatsugen zenbun,” Ryukyu shimpo, 10 December 2014.

¹² “Henoko shinsa chushi motomeru,” Okinawa taimusu, 23 December 2014.

¹³ He would appear to have preferred the advice given by Tome Kenichiro. Tome, as head of the prefectural Engineering and Construction Department, had been a key figure in the Nakaima administration's reversal during the previous year.

¹⁴ “Henoko shinsa chushi motomeru,” op. cit.

¹⁵ “Henoko umetate shonin, kenshohan wa Sakurai shi ra 5 nin, toshiake hatsu kaigo,” Ryukyu shimpo, 25 December 2014. For representative Sakurai texts on the environmental implications of the Henoko project, see the Asia-Pacific Journal index. The title of one, “Japan's Illegal Environmental Impact Assessment of the Henoko Base,” (The Asia Pacific Journal, Vol. 10, Issue 9, No 5, February 27, 2012) was characteristically forthright.

¹⁶ “”Sakurai shi ra koho, Henoko shonin kensho chimu jinsen,“ Okinawa taimusu, 11 January 2015. This distinction was expected to have legal ramifications, and the Onaga administration was anticipating that whatever step it took would be subjected to judicial challenge by the government in Tokyo.

¹⁷ “Sakurai shi ra koho,” op. cit.

¹⁸ “Arayuru shuho o kushi shite, Henoko ni shin kichi wa tsukurasenai.”

¹⁹ “Futenma kichi no heisa, tekkyo, kennai isetsu dannen, Osupurei haibi tekkai o tsuyoku motomeru.”

²⁰ “Kennai isetsu hitei sezu,” Yaeyama nippo, 3 November 2014.

²¹ “Hayaku mo kotai…” op. cit.

²² See full text of Kenpakusho in both Japanese and English here.

²³ In his taking-office speech on December 12, he only talked of “cancellation,” and in his New Year address to Okinawa prefectural staff on January 5, he did not mention either “revocation” or “cancellation.”

²⁴ “Shimin kensho kankyo men o jushi,” Okinawa taimusu, 18 December 2014 (see discussion in “Hayaku mo ‘kotai’ shita hatsu gikai toben, Onaga chiji ni setsumei sekinin o,” in the blog “Watashi no Okinawa/Hiroshima nikki,” 20 December 2014.

²⁵ Ryukyu shimpo, 17 December 2014 (quoted in “Hayaku mo,” ibid.)

²⁶ “On time,” is a very flexible concept in relation to this project. The original target date, set in 1996, was 1999 to 2002 (“within three to five years”) but by 2013 Nakaima was promising reversion of Futenma following completion of Henoko, by 2018, while the officially agreed date (settled in 2013) was “at earliest 2022.”

²⁷ “Onaga chiji, seifu kikan nado ni Henoko hantai tsutaeru,” Okinawa taimusu, 19 December 2014.

²⁸ “Mendan moshiire,” op. cit. Onaga had only a brief meeting with Yamaguchi Shunichi, cabinet minister responsible for Okinawan affairs.

²⁹ “Onaga chiji, nosho osei mo mitei, jimin kenren, nittei chosei kotowaru,” Ryukyu shimpo, 7 January 2015.

³⁰ “Okinawa chiji o reigu, jiminto kanbu ‘Nakaima ja nai kara’,” Asahi Shimbun, 9 January 2015.

³¹ “Mendan moshiire,” op. cit.

³² “Okinawa shinko yosan ichiwari gen, rainendo seifu, 3100 oku en de chosei,” Okinawa taimusu, 8 January 2015.

³³ Shimazu Yasuo, former chair-person of the Japan Society for Impact Assessment, quoted in Hideki Yoshikawa, “An appeal from Okinawa to the US Congress,” The Asia-Pacific Journal – Japan Focus, 29 September 2014.

³⁴ Yoshikawa, ibid.

³⁵ See here.

³⁶ The “Kempakusho o jitsugen shi mirai o hiraku shimagurumi kaigi”. See “Shimagurumi kaigi, kokuren to Bei ni yosei kettei,” Ryukyu shimpo, 24 December 2014.

³⁷ On Yonaguni, see my earlier essay, “The End of the Postwar? The Abe Government, Okinawa, and Yonaguni Island”, The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol. 12, Issue 49, No. 3, December 8, 2014.

³⁸ Heianna Sumiyo, “Omoikaze – Washinton hikiyosete,” Okinawa taimusu, 30 December 2014.

³⁹ Heianna Sumiyo, “Omoikaze – Henoko, kogi no jiyu o,” Okinawa taimusu, 9 January 2015.