Three months after the Okinawa Defense Bureau started seawall construction off the coast of Nago in Okinawa's Henoko district, work to build a replacement facility for a U.S. military base in Ginowan is moving forward — and along with it, renewed legal and political resistance to the controversial plan.
On Tuesday, an Okinawa Prefectural Assembly committee passed a resolution calling for legal action to halt the crushing of rocks and offshore reefs related to the landfill project, citing damage to fishing grounds. If the full assembly, which is controlled by opponents of the Henoko plan, passes the resolution on Friday, formal legal proceedings against Tokyo could begin next week.
"The granting of fishing rights is considered a local government matter and it's the prefecture that determines how to interpret those local government matters," Kiichiro Jahana, the head of the Executive Office of the Governor, told the assembly Tuesday in justifying the decision for legal action, according to local reports.