When Okinawa Prefecture was returned to Japan in 1972, 3,000 Self-Defense Forces personnel were stationed on the prefecture’s main island.
Fifty years on, the number is now about 8,000, with the Air Self-Defense Force’s F15 fighters and the Maritime Self-Defense Force’s patrol aircraft also busy monitoring Chinese activities. A Ground Self-Defense Force missile unit is also stationed in the area.
Even though about 70% of local residents are opposed to a new military base in the Henoko district in Nago, the GSDF and the U.S. Marines made a secret deal to station the GSDF’s Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade there.