Editorials Mar 26, 2013
Given strong Okinawan opposition to a plan to move Futenma air station to Nago City, Tokyo should start talks with Washington to find a suitable relocation site outside Okinawa Prefecture.
National Mar 25, 2013
Abe exploiting chink in base opposition?
by Eric Johnston
Tokyo's request to begin landfill work in Okinawa was a calculated move that came amid signs that opposition to a contentious U.S. military base might be softening.
Editorials Mar 23, 2013
On April 28 the Abe Cabinet will commemorate the day in 1952 that Japan got its sovereignty back. Don't look for many Okinawans at the ceremony.
National Mar 20, 2013
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Tuesday that his government will make efforts to ease Okinawa's burden of hosting the bulk of U.S. military bases in Japan and promote the prefecture's economic development. "There are still many U.S. military facilities, imposing large burdens on the people ...
National / Crime & Legal Mar 14, 2013
The Naha District Court sentenced a U.S. airman to one year in prison, suspended for three years, for intruding into an apartment, injuring a junior high school boy and destroying a TV set during a drunken spress last November in Okinawa. Matthew Haist, 24, stationed ...
National / Politics Mar 12, 2013
Despite the outcry in Okinawa, replacing U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma with a new base outside the prefecture will be difficult given Japan's worsening security environment, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe warned Monday. Addressing a Diet committee, Abe also criticized North Korea for ratcheting up ...
National Mar 9, 2013
Abe plan for sovereignty day fete irks Okinawans
by Reiji Yoshida
The prime minister's declaration of a ceremony to commemorate the 1952 end of the Allied Occupation and restoration of Japan's sovereignty strikes a sore nerve in Okinawa.
National Mar 9, 2013
The U.S. military aims to complete the redeployment to Guam of marine elements now in Okinawa by 2020, according to recent congressional testimony by Adm. Samuel Locklear, commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, and other sources. It is the first time the U.S. forces have ...
National / Crime & Legal Mar 7, 2013
After helping deliver prison sentences Friday to two U.S. servicemen guilty of rape, lay judges in a high-profile trial in Okinawa said they suppressed personal emotions to keep their judgment unclouded by anger toward the U.S. military bases in the prefecture. "The defendant is punished ...
National Mar 2, 2013
Two U.S. sailors were given prison terms of nine and 10 years on Friday for raping and injuring a Japanese woman in her 20s in Okinawa in October. A panel of three professional and six lay judges at the Naha District Court handed a 10-year ...
Film Mar 1, 2013
Fifth Okinawa fest celebrates community films
by Mark Schilling
Since its start in 2009, the Okinawa International Movie Festival has been more than its name implies. It has the usual competition sections: one called Laugh for comedies and another called Peace for dramas, though not all the films fit neatly into these two ...