【ニッポンの新常識】 Common Knowledge Revisited(33)
翁長知事めぐるトンデモ話の数々 辺野古「移設阻止」 龍柱建造は推進…
Governor Onaga’s Antics: Blocks Henoko Transfer, Promotes Dragon Pillar Construction
http://www.zakzak.co.jp/society/domestic/news/20150919/dms1509190900004-n1.htm
The U.S. and Japanese governments have agreed to the building of a new runway on reclaimed land off the coast of Henoko, Nago City and to the transfer of the U.S. military Futenma Airfield now in Ginowan City to the new site.
Due to bungling by the Democratic Party of Japan, this plan was temporarily held up. But the second administration of Shinzo Abe which came to power in December 2012 resurrected it, and the plan has been proceeding apace.
However, Takeshi Onaga, former mayor of Naha City, ran for governor of Okinawa in November 2014 on a platform of blocking the transfer and defeated the sitting governor, Hirokaze Nakaima. On September 14, Onaga formally announced that he would revoke the reclamation permit.
I also believe that the move to Henoko is not the best plan, but if a national defense policy agreed upon by two nations can be ditched on the authority of one prefectural governor, then I think the system of governance in Japanese is fatally flawed.
When Onaga was in the prefectural assembly, he belonged to the Liberal Democratic Party, and was a leading proponent of the resolution promoting the transfer to Henoko. He was also in favor of the transfer to Henoko when he was the mayor of Naha.
However, in the gubernatorial election he received the support of the Communist Party and the Social Democratic Party, and voiced his opposition to the transfer. I would like to know the detailed reasons for his sudden conversion.
In the first place, the Futenma transfer started with the demands of the citizens of Ginowan to “close the dangerous base located in the center of the city.” Opposition to the transfer crushes the hopes of the people of Ginowan, and is a betrayal of their trust. How did Onaga explain himself to the people of Ginowan?
One reason for the choice of Henoko over other proposed sites was because of the support from the local citizens who could expect economic benefit. It is said that the majority of the opposition activists encamped in Henoko are neither residents of Nago City or Okinawa Prefecture.
The seabed off the coast of Henoko is very deep so that construction costs swell over other proposed sites, but the local industry appealed for this site. The government and the people of the prefecture desired this as a way to “revitalize the Okinawan economy by having the construction costs paid to Okinawan contractors.”
I hear that when Onaga was the mayor of Naha, he used unconditional grants from the central government to hire a Chinese contractor to build a “coiled dragon stone pillar,” but the grants are meaningless if the money flows overseas. Has he no sense of economics?
At the end of this month, Onaga plans to attend a meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Commission Board of Directors where it is rumored that he will present the preposterous notion that “U.S. military bases on Okinawa symbolize discrimination against the natives of the Ryukyu Islands.”
Rather than engaging in meaningless activities at the U.N., he should use his connections with the Chinese Communist Party to deliver a direct message to General Secretary Xi Jinping as follows: “The Senkaku Islands are a part of Okinawa Prefecture, where I am the governor. Keep your hands off them.”
No doubt, the number of Onaga fans would increase throughout Japan.
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