Japan's top court dismisses Okinawa's appeal to halt landfill work

TOKYO Kyodo Japan's top court on Thursday dismissed an appeal by the Okinawa prefectural government to halt landfill work for the relocation of a key U.S. base within the southern island prefecture.

The Supreme Court upheld lower court rulings in which Okinawa had cases against the central government dismissed.

Okinawa had challenged the legality of the then land minister's decision to allow landfill work to build a replacement facility for the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma.

Okinawa and the central government are at odds with regards to moving the Futenma base from a crowded residential district in Ginowan to the less densely populated Henoko coastal area of Nago.

Residents in Okinawa, which hosts the bulk of the U.S. military's facilities in Japan, have objected to the relocation, complaining about accidents and crime linked to the U.S. military presence, noise and environmental degradation.

In 1996, a relocation plan was agreed upon between Tokyo and Washington.

In 2013 Okinawa approved the landfill work in the Henoko area. In 2018, it retracted permission for such work, citing weak ground discovered in the planned reclamation site.

In the year 2019 the land minister, Keiichi Ishii, invalidated Okinawa's retraction of the plan.