Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda on Wednesday held his first debate in the Diet with Liberal Democratic Party leader Sadakazu Tanigaki and with Komeito leader Natsuo Yamaguchi. Although the LDP and Komeito had cooperated with the Democratic Party of Japan in passing the third supplementary budget for fiscal 2011 and related bills to fund reconstruction from the March 11 disasters, Mr. Tanigaki showed a confrontational stance toward the prime minister.
At the outset of the debate, Mr. Noda was placed on the defensive because of the controversial statement by the chief of the Okinawa Defense Bureau. The statement made with regard to the government plan to relocate the U.S. Marine Air Station Futenma from Ginowan on Okinawa Island to Henoko, on the same island, showed contempt for women and the Okinawan people.
Mr. Noda apologized for the bureaucrat's statement. He stressed that the relocation plan is designed to reduce the burden on Okinawan people. But Mr. Noda fails to understand Okinawan people's feeling that anything short of moving the Futenma functions outside Okinawa Prefecture discriminates against them.