Frequent accidents involving US Forces Japan raise doubts chinamil.com.cn - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from chinamil.com.cn Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Posted on March 1, 2021.
What is the government going to do? If nothing is achieved even when the prefecture, prefectural assembly and local governments are united in protest, then how can it be seen as anything other than the government abandoning its role?
In a meeting of the House of Representatives Budget Committee held on Feb. 17, Japanese Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide said that the low-altitude training conducted by U.S. military aircraft is “important training to accomplish the goals of the Japan-U.S. security treaty.”
The statement Suga made to the Diet may have led Americans to believe that the Japanese government has given its approval to these practices.
Okinawa Prefectural Assembly building
January 15, 2021 Ryukyu Shimpo
On January 14, a meeting of the Okinawa Prefectural Assembly’s Special Committee on U.S. Military Base Affairs (chaired by Moriyuki Teruya) opened and unanimously adopted the chairman’s declaration objecting to the low altitude flying of U.S. military aircraft in the vicinity of the Kerama Islands. The declaration mentioned that Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi’s statement, in which he gave his approval for these flights, was “truly deplorable”; requested a drastic revision of the U.S.-Japan Status of Forces Agreement; and asked for training in the sky over residential districts to stop. The Okinawa Prefectural Government (OPG) is attempting to coordinate with the US military as well as relevant agencies of the U.S. and Japanese governments, and calling personnel from these agencies to visit the Okinawa Prefectural Office next week or thereafter.