Japan's court orders Okinawa governor to approve design change for US base relocation

A Japanese high court on Wednesday ordered the governor of Okinawa prefecture to approve the central government's design change for planned ground improvement work under a US base relocation project.

The Naha branch of the Fukuoka High Court ruled in favor of the central government on the lawsuit it filed against Denny Tamaki, governor of the southernmost prefecture, in October over his refusal to approve the design change.

The controversial project aims to relocate the US Marine Corps' Futenma air base in Ginowan to the Henoko coastal area in Nago, which is also in Okinawa.

The presiding judge ordered Tamaki to approve the design change within three business days. If Tamaki does not approve within the time set, the land, infrastructure, transport, and tourism minister will be able to give approval in place of the governor and start ground improvement work.

It would be the first-ever proxy execution of the central government, local media reports said, noting that the Okinawa prefectural government will be able to appeal to the Supreme Court, but the appeal cannot stop the proxy execution.

Earlier in September, Tamaki told a United Nations Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva that the concentration of US military bases in Okinawa threatens peace, noting that the Japanese government is forcibly filling in precious sea areas to build a new US military base, regardless of the opinions of local residents.

The governor has also, on multiple occasions, expressed concerns over excessive levels of toxic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances detected in the water around US military bases in Japan.

The island of Okinawa hosts 70 percent of all the US military bases in Japan while accounting for only 0.6 percent of the country's total land area. More than 70 percent of local residents opposed the US military base construction on the Henoko landfill, showed a 2019 Okinawa Prefecture voting results.