Susumu Inamine, mayor of Nago, Okinawa Prefecture, vowed Thursday to use every weapon in his arsenal to block the central government's efforts to construct a replacement base in his city for the U.S. Futenma airfield.
Inamine defeated a pro-base rival to win re-election last month, promising to block the Futenma relocation project.
"(The central government) will soon try to start on-site surveys and procedures for the construction. In some cases, (it) will need approval, consensus, or consultation with the mayor," Inamine told reporters during a news conference at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo.