http://www.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/08_13.html

Nago assembly rejects US Marine relocation option

The municipal assembly of Nago, Okinawa says it will not allow a helicopter runway to be built within a US Marine base in the city.

The building of a helicopter runway within the US Marine Corps Camp Schwab is one of the options being considered by a panel of the government and ruling parties. The panel is to decide by the end of May where to relocate the US Marine Corps Futenma Air Station, currently in Ginowan, Okinawa.

On Monday, the Nago assembly unanimously adopted a motion to block the option. The members say the option would result in an air field that is closer to residential areas than the existing plan agreed upon by the United States and the previous Japanese government in 2006.

The existing plan calls for building a V-shaped runway partly offshore in a coastal area of Camp Schwab.

In a speech after the assembly’s decision, Nago Mayor Susumu Inamine said he would adhere to his campaign pledge of allowing no new military facilities to be built in any part of the city, either on land or offshore.

Inamine won the mayoral election in late January, defeating incumbent Mayor Yoshikazu Shimabukuro, who accepted the 2006 plan on condition that the planned airfield be built further offshore.

2010/03/08 12:47(JST)