April 22, 2010
Tokyo, April 22 (Jiji Press) -- Two senior members of Japan's Social Democratic Party will join a major rally in Okinawa to protest against any move to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma air station within the southern island prefecture, the party said Thursday.
The two are Secretary-General Yasumasa Shigeno and Tomoko Abe, policy chief.
Mizuho Fukushima, head of the SDP, one of the two ruling coalition partners of the Democratic Party of Japan, also said she will participate in the rally on Sunday in Ginowan, where the base is currently located, if she can find time. Fukushima is serving as consumer affairs minister.
It is very unusual that top officials of a ruling party will take part in a protest against a government policy, critics said.
The DPJ-led government is currently considering transferring the Futenma base's helicopter unit to Tokunoshima Island in Kagoshima Prefecture, north of Okinawa, and
an inland area of the Marine's Camp Schwab in another Okinawa city of Nago.
(2010/04/22-14:52)
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