Protesters marched in Okinawa on Friday, calling for the scrapping of a controversial U.S. military base relocation project, ahead of the 46th anniversary Tuesday of the prefecture's reversion to Japan from U.S. control.
Some 820 participants started the three-day peace march in the prefecture, which hosts the bulk of U.S. military bases in Japan, as Tokyo pushes forward with a plan to relocate U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma from the densely populated city of Ginowan to Henoko in the coastal area of Nago. Local residents have urged authorities to scrap the plan and relocate the base outside the prefecture.
The march was split into two routes, with one starting in front of the gate of U.S. Marine Corps' Camp Schwab in Henoko, where an anti-base sit-in protest continues, and another starting in front of the Okinawa Prefectural Government building in Naha.