Why is Japanese government so stubborn on keeping military bases in Okinawa?
Tanuki
Okinawa Prefecture is scrambling to plot its next move in the wake of a recent Supreme Court ruling siding with the central government's effort to relocate the operations of a U.S. military base within the prefecture despite fierce local opposition.
People of Okinawa have been consistently opposing the bases, and have defeated several ruling party candidates to show their displeasure. But the government keeps building the bases here. Why are they not prepared to listen?
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| #12616 by Yubi
| 7 years, 3 months ago
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I think it is because:
- Okinawans are already unhappy about it, and will not be happy unless all bases are gone. Keeping then unhappy is better than moving elsewhere andmaking another set of people unhappy.
- The location is strategically important.
- At least before the current Okinawa local government, it was easy to give more funding to Okinawa and put the bases there. Not working any more.
- There are other bases in areas with more voters, close to Tokyo and Yokohama. Trouble at such places will make LDP lose more votes than in Okinawa.
I am no expert on this topic, I just find that Marines in Okinawa behave much worse than those in the rest of Japan. It's terrible that people have to put up with that kind of people, let alone crashing Ospreys.
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