Reclaiming land in the portion in the left is under way off the Henoko district of Nago in Okinawa Prefecture for the construction of a new U.S. military base. A weak seabed was found in the right part of the planned reclamation area. The simmering confrontation between the central government and Okinawa is about to flare up again, according to Asahi Shimbun file photo NAHA.
On Nov. 25, Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki said that the prefecture will reject a proposed design change in the landfill work for the construction of a planned U.S. military base when he meets the ruling prefectural assembly group backing him.
The central government is expected to counter the move, which will likely lead to a fresh court battle between the two sides, which is the latest in the ongoing saga over the highly controversial project that Tamaki has staunchly opposed for years.
He cited what prefectural officials see as flaws in the measures to strengthen the weak seabed in the planned reclamation area, located off the Henoko district of Nago in northern Okinawa Prefecture, along with the steps to protect the surrounding environment.
The landfill work is part of the central government's project to build a new U.S. base that would take over the functions of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Ginowan, also in the prefecture.
A majority of Okinawans have voiced opposition to relocating the facility within the southernmost prefecture through a referendum and elections.
The project was put into motion when Governor Hirokazu Nakaima approved a request by the central government in 2013 for the reclamation work necessary to build the base.
A weak seabed, described as soft as mayonnaise, had been discovered in the northern part of the planned reclamation area during a drilling survey completed by 2016.
The documents were only revealed in March 2018, after a group of Okinawans pressed for them through a freedom-of-information request.
The central government started the reclamation work in December 2018, continuing with the 39 hectare southern portion.
In the year 2019 it finally acknowledged the need to carry out additional large-scale work aimed at reforcing the shaky seabed in the 111 hectare northern part of the area.
The central government applied for a change to the design of the landfill work in April 2020, in line with the Public Waters Reclamation Law.
There are 71,000 structural pilings that will be required to secure the problem area under the revised plan, raising doubts about whether such work would ever be completed because of the enormous technological difficulties involved in it.
In late 2019, the central government revised its overall cost estimate for the base's construction to as much as 930 billion yen $8.08 billion, about 2.7 times the initial estimate, due to the extra work needed to strengthen the seabed there.
The return of land for the Futenma facility is expected to be pushed back to the latter half of the 2030 s from fiscal 2022 at the earliest.