Shortly before the government began reclaiming land off the Henoko district of Nago, Okinawa Prefecture, to build a new U.S. military base in 2018, a short poem by Kenji Nanjo appeared in The Asahi Shimbun’s “Kadan” tanka poetry section.
Differences of opinions have widened between Okinawa Prefecture and Tokyo since Keizo Obuchi tried to bring issues facing the southern island prefecture to the fore of government policy.