The Japanese government was aware that a portion of the seabed at the planned relocation site for a U.S. military base in Okinawa Prefecture was weak in 2015, three years before controversial landfill work got underway there, official documents showed Saturday.
A geological survey conducted by a contractor found the possibility of the ground sinking over the long term due to a weak seabed area. However, the government did not officially acknowledge the existence of the soft earth, which required reinforcement work, until 2019.
The transfer of the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, located in a densely populated area of Ginowan in Okinawa, is spelled out in a bilateral agreement between Japan and the United States. But transferring the base to the coastal area of Henoko has met with strong opposition from residents in the prefecture, which hosts the bulk of U.S. military installations in the country.