Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's right-hand man is pledging to provide economic support to Nago, the city expected to take over as host of an unpopular U.S. base situated further south in Okinawa.
"The government will see that the residents' living environment is protected and that measures are taken to promote the regional economy," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Friday in a meeting with residents near the relocation site for U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma on Nago's coastline.
The government is building more seawalls to prepare for the transfer of Futenma airfield's functions to the Nago site, which is adjacent to the marines' Camp Schwab, but the plan has been fiercely opposed for decades by residents in the prefecture, which hosts the bulk of U.S. military facilities in Japan.