The government will begin building two more seawalls in Okinawa as part of the relocation project for U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, sources say.
The seawalls will surround a landfill in Henoko Bay in Nago, where a new facility is planned to replace the Futenma base in crowded Ginowan.
Construction on the first seawall began in April and it has been extended to about 100 meters. Work at the additional locations is expected to trigger a harsh reaction from Okinawa Gov. Takeshi Onaga, who strongly opposes building a new U.S. base in the prefecture and wants the Futenma base removed altogether.
The additional seawall work comes after general election on Oct. 22 saw a candidate from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party win one of Okinawa’s four districts, which had been dominated by pro-Onaga candidates in the previous election in 2014.
The government trying to make progress on the Futenma project before the Okinawa gubernatorial election in November next year.
