(My latest story) Asia Times Online : Mage Island another tinderbox for Japan

Asia Times Online :: Mage Island another tinderbox for Japan

A Japanese-United States plan to use a small island in Kagoshima prefecture for carrier-borne landing practice suggests the allies have learnt little from the US presence on Okinawa. While entrenched local opposition to the militarization of Mage Island is mobilizing in earnest, there are good military reasons - such as the island's vulnerability - to find a better realignment strategy for US forces. - Kosuke Takahashi (Jun 24, '11)

Mage Island another tinderbox for Japan

By Kosuke Takahashi

TOKYO - Across the globe, bureaucrats tend to make up fascinating armchair plans. But without regard to local input, that's just a castle in the air - however ingeniously conceived. Without regard for the environment or consideration of local people, no mere desk plan will do.

A very good example is the long-standing controversial relocation issue of the United States Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) at Futenma in Okinawa prefecture in Japan's south.

But now, foreign and defense policymakers of the US and Japan are about to repeat the same failure, as they have caused another friction with local governments over a small island of western Japan called Mage Island.

Although it's hard to spot in news headlines, the US and Japan on June 21 for the first time named Mage Island - or an uninhabited island in Nishinoomote City of Kagoshima prefecture - as the candidate site for US carrier-borne aircraft landing drills.

The joint statement, issued by four foreign and defense ministers of the US and Japan after the so-called two-plus-two security meeting in Washington, for the first time specifically mentioned the name of Mage Island for the "use by US forces as a permanent field carrier landing practice site".

Yet another Futenma?
"Mage Island could be yet another Futenma," Japanese military analyst Toshiyuki Shikata told Asia Times Online. "The government, led by the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, has made no serious efforts to convince local people of the plan. They ignored democratic process."

Mage Island covers about 800 hectares and is located around 12 kilometers west of Tanegashima between Kyushu and Okinawa. It was picked as the permanent site for the so-called Field Carrier Landing Practice (FCLP) of the US Navy's Carrier Air Wing 5 (CVW-5) based at Naval Air Facility Atsugi of Kanagawa prefecture, southwest of Tokyo, or the largest US Naval Air Facility in the Pacific. Most of the island is privately owned by a land developer headquartered in Tokyo. Permission from this company is required to land on the island as a general rule.

Under the 2006 bilateral road map agreement on the realignment of US forces in Japan, CVW-5 squadrons, together with their 59 US carrier-borne jet fighters such as the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, are set to be transferred from the Atsugi naval base to the MCAS Iwakuni in Yamaguchi prefecture.

The two nations plan to replace Iwo Island, under the jurisdiction of Tokyo, where the FCLP by CVW-5 is provisionally conducted, with Mage Island. The 2006 bilateral realignment road map said that a permanent location would be picked by 2009 - a delay that Japanese officials can catch a lot of heat for, as they face strong pressure from the US.

Mage Island is only about 400 kilometers from MCAS Iwakuni, while Iwo Island is around 1,200 kilometers away from the Atsugi naval base, thus making flight drills on Mage Island more convenient for the US Navy.

Local opposition
Just as Okinawans have opposed the relocation of the Futenma base to a new helicopter base scheduled for construction off the shores of the beautiful Henoko bay, local officials and residents in Nishinoomote City are beginning to protest the plan to transfer the drills to Mage Island in earnest.

Chikara Nagano, mayor of Nishinoomote City, has said, "We harbor strong resentment against the government's high-handed tactics ignoring local communities' will, and we will never permit it."

Kagoshima governor Yuichiro Ito also voiced his opposition, by saying "it's needed to protest against the plan, together with local people".

Eleven groups such as civic, tourist and medical associations in Nishinoomote City on June 22 jointly issued a letter of protest, under which they pledged to remain adamantly against the plan.

Under the plan, the Japanese Ministry of Defense plans to build a Self-Defense Forces (SDF) facility on Mage Island and conduct the landing practice as part of its efforts to boost security around the Nansei Islands in Okinawa prefecture, and in the East China Sea near China and Taiwan, a move that is apparently aimed at countering China's growing naval power.

In the meantime, the US also plans to conduct the field carrier landing practice there.

Talk of Mage Island as a candidate site for the envisaged flight drill facility arose in 2007 under the administration of the Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner the New Komeito party.

But it disappeared soon due to strong local opposition from the Nishinoomote and nearby municipalities. Then, in December 2009 under the former Yukio Hatoyama administration, the island was even considered as a candidate for the Futenma transfer. But again this idea was scrapped because of strong local protest.

Japanese military analyst Shikata said it is militarily nonsense to build the drill site on an uninhabited island such as Mage Island.

"Small islands are vulnerable to external attacks," Shikata said. "Terrorists can easily attack them. Moreover, the US needs the SDF troops for their own safety, just as the US forces in Okinawa are protected by the SDF troops there. You cannot easily build the drill site for the US in such an uninhabited island without SDF personnel."

Kosuke Takahashi is a Tokyo-based Japanese journalist. His twitter is @TakahashiKosuke

(Copyright 2011 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)

(AFP) U.S. Senate Moves to Freeze Japan Base Move - Defense News

U.S. Senate Moves to Freeze Japan Base Move - Defense News


AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Published: 18 Jun 2011 11:21

WASHINGTON - U.S. senators said June 17 that they have taken a major step to halt a controversial military base plan on Japan's Okinawa Island and called on the Pentagon to make a fresh assessment.

Brushing aside insistence by the two governments that plans should go ahead, the Senate Armed Services Committee agreed to bar any funds to move troops from Japan to Guam and ordered a new study on Okinawa's flashpoint Futenma base.

The language was part of an annual defense funding act approved June 16.

It needs approval from the full Senate and House of Representatives, but senators involved said that their actions on Asian bases enjoyed broad support.

Sen. Carl Levin, a member of President Barack Obama's Democratic Party who heads the committee, said that the base plan in Japan increasingly appeared unfeasible and that the United States needed to control costs.

"This is a major step to put all these changes on hold and to require some analysis of cost and to take an honest look at what the current plans are and what the alternatives are," Levin told reporters on a conference call.

The Senate intervened even though the Obama administration had put its foot down with Japan, insisting that the base plan could not be changed. One Japanese prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, resigned last year after failing to fulfill campaign promises to come up with a new plan on the Futenma base.

"I think people have kind of hidden their heads in the sand because everyone just says, 'We've got a plan, we're going to keep going.' But the problem is the current plan isn't affordable, it's not workable," Levin said.

Okinawa is home to around half of the 47,000 U.S. troops stationed in Japan under a post-World War II security treaty. Futenma, a Marine Corps air station, is a particular source of grievance as it lies in what has become a crowded urban area.

Under a 2006 plan first approved by President George W. Bush's administration and a previous conservative government in Japan, the United States would close Futenma and move its aircraft to an isolated beach elsewhere in Okinawa. Some 8,000 Marines would leave Okinawa for Guam, a U.S. territory, in 2014.

The Senate bill prohibits funds for the Marine move until commanders provide an updated plan for Guam - where public support has been dwindling - and the Defense Department certifies "tangible progress" on the Futenma riddle.

Amid a push by lawmakers to tame a soaring debt, the Senate committee also cut $150 million during the year starting in October for projects linked to the shift to Guam.

The bill requires the Defense Department to study an alternative, drafted by Democratic Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia, to close and return Futenma's real estate and move its air assets to Okinawa's existing Kadena Air Base.

Under Webb's proposal, some air assets would be moved from Kadena to other parts of Japan and Guam - a solution he argued would reduce both congestion and costs.

"These recommendations are workable, cost-effective, will reduce the burden on the Okinawan people and will strengthen the American contribution to the security of the region," Webb, a former combat Marine who heads a subcommittee on East Asia, said in a statement.

In South Korea, the Senate bill would end funding obligations for troops to bring their families. Starting in 2007, military commanders have allowed many of the 28,500 troops stationed in South Korea to be accompanied.

A recent study by the non-partisan Government Accountability Office said that the Defense Department did not sufficiently study the costs of the change, which could total $22 billion through 2050.

The Senate bill does not freeze the overall base shift in South Korea, as initially proposed by Webb, Levin and Republican Sen. John McCain who voiced concern about mounting costs.

The U.S. military plans to start shifting next year to a base in the city of Pyeongtaek, eventually closing the huge Yongsan base in Seoul which was set up for the 1950-53 Korean War but now lies in the heart of a bustling metropolis.