The so-called intensive talks between the national government and Okinawa Prefecture on the plan to build a replacement facility for U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma ended this week without any constructive results. The Abe administration said the government's plan is based on the 1996 Japan-U.S. accord for return of the base site and reiterated that construction of the replacement facility in the Henoko district of Nago in northern Okinawa is the only solution to the dangers posed by Futenma to the residents of Ginowan. Gov. Takeshi Onaga stressed that the Henoko issue must be understood in the context of the postwar history of Okinawa, which saw the United States build many of its bases on land seized from locals.
The fact that the national government did not budge at all from its position raises doubts over what the administration intended to achieve in the five rounds of talks it held over the period of a month. It may not escape the charge that the talks were a political maneuver to take the heat off the confrontation with Okinawa just as the Abe Cabinet's popular approval ratings were falling over its controversial security legislation.
At the end of the talks, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said the government would resume work on the replacement facility, which had been suspended since Aug. 10. But as long as the administration refuses to acknowledge Okinawans' resentment over the heavy presence of U.S. military facilities on their land, the confrontation between Tokyo and Okinawa will likely only deepen and local opposition to the Henoko plan will intensify, making a solution even more difficult.