April 19, 2010TOKUNOSHIMA, Kagoshima -- Some 15,000 residents of Tokunoshima Island gathered at a rally on Sunday to protest a government plan to relocate U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Okinawa to the Kagoshima Prefecture island.
The demonstration drew over half the 26,000 residents of the island, and has apparently made it difficult for Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama to keep his promise on settling the relocation issue by the end of May.
The rally, which was organized by an organization comprising residents of the three towns of the island -- Tokunoshima, Amagi and Isen -- as well as some 60 groups based on the island, attracted 5,000 more protesters on Sunday than the organizers had expected. Protesters held up signs with such slogans as: "No relocation" and "No base."
Photo: Residents of Tokunoshima Island, Kagoshima Prefecture, chant slogans in protest of a plan to relocate the Futenma base in Okinawa to the island at a rally on Sunday.
Among the participants of Sunday's rally, held at a port in the town of Tokunoshima, were the town mayors of Tokunoshima, Amagi and Isen.
"This rally will convince the government that the base cannot be relocated to our island. Let's join hands to protect our island," Isen Town Mayor Akira Okubo said, sparking loud applause.
The rally closed after adopting a resolution saying, "We don't need a U.S. base on our island, which is blessed with longevity, a high birthrate and is relaxing."
Also in attendance at the meeting was Takeshi Tokuda, a House of Representatives member of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and other Diet members elected in the local constituencies in Kagoshima, as well as a Kagoshima Prefectural Assembly member of the Social Democratic Party (SDP).
"That the government is demanding us to host the base in return for economic promotion measures is disrespectful to the residents of the island," Tokuda said in criticizing the Hatoyama administration's plan.
A Lower House member of Komeito also sent a message to the rally, but no lawmakers from the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) either attended or dispatched a message.
Meanwhile, Hiroshi Kawauchi, a Lower House member of the DPJ who heads the party's Kagoshima chapter, met Prime Minister Hatoyama at the Prime Minister's Office on Sunday evening, telling him about the chapter's request that the Tokunoshima relocation plan be retracted.
Hatoyama reportedly only replied, "I see."
Click here for the original Japanese story
(Mainichi Japan) April 19, 2010
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