Confusion surrounded the submission to the Okinawa prefectural government of an official document related to the Japan-U.S. plan to move U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma from the densely populated Ginowan to the less populated Henoko in Nago, both on Okinawa Island. This indicates that the relocation has almost no prospect of being carried out and that a completely new approach is needed.
The Defense Ministry's Okinawa Defense Bureau on Dec. 27 tried to have a delivery firm transport a report of environmental impact assessment for the relocation plan to the Okinawa prefectural government. Since protesters surrounded vehicles of the firm and stopped them, the bureau changed its plan. Shortly after 4 a.m. the next day, the vehicles arrived at a side gate of the prefectural government and bureau workers brought in boxes of the report amounting to some 7,000 pages.
The environmental impact assessment is legally required because land must be reclaimed from the sea for the Henoko facility construction. After the assessment procedure is completed, Tokyo will ask Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima for permission to reclaim the land.