The Defense Ministry on Monday started drilling in waters off Nago, Okinawa Prefecture, where a new airstrip for the facility intended to replace U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma will be built, a senior ministry official said.
The drilling survey will cover 16 sites in the seabed through Nov. 30 and be conducted from a jack-up barge that was readied Sunday, the official said, adding it would conduct a similar survey at five sites.
The survey is intended to inspect the strength and geological conditions of the seabed and the ground, the official said.
The ministry's Okinawa Defense Bureau also said it has launched a similar drilling survey nearby at the beach off the U.S. Marines' Camp Schwab.
Japan and the United States agreed more than a decade ago to move the Futenma base further north from densely populated Ginowan to less populated Henoko, a district in Nago. But Okinawa residents have fiercely opposed the move and want the base kicked out of the prefecture, which hosts the bulk of U.S. military forces.
Residents opposed to the plan boarded boats to demand the cancellation of the survey, but were kept away from the drilling sites by Japan Coast Guard patrol boats.
Among them was Hiroaki Tanaka, a 29-year-old university student from Ginowan.
"I want to get as close to the barge as possible and have the drilling survey suspended," he said.
In 2004, the Defense Ministry launched a similar drilling survey but canceled it the following year without establishing the restricted areas.
