Okinawa governor pulls permit for building U.S. Marine base

TOKYO — The battle over the relocation of a United States Marine Corps base on the Japanese island of Okinawa escalated Tuesday when Okinawa’s governor revoked a permit for the new construction site.

The central government in Tokyo vowed to fight the governor’s decision, but Tuesday’s action marked the latest in a series of complications that has bedeviled the U.S. military’s efforts to build a new base on Okinawa.

“To fulfill my pledge not to let any more bases to be built, I will continue to tackle this issue to the best of my ability,” said Takeshi Onaga, the governor of Okinawa, a series of islands 200 miles south of the Japanese mainland.

Onaga was elected at the end of last year on a promise to stop construction of the new U.S. Marine base at Henoko, on a remote and unspoiled bay in the northern part of the Okinawa islands. It is envisaged as a replacement for the current facility at Futenma, right in the middle of a densely populated part of the main island.

The government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is expected to appeal to the Ministry of Land, and it is likely the fight will end up in court.

Over the summer, Tokyo and Okinawa had tried to come to some agreement over how to resolve their stand-off over the new base construction.

Onaga earlier went to Washington to appeal directly for construction to stop, but the Pentagon insists that it has an agreement with Tokyo and this is an internal dispute for Japan to resolve.