Defense Bureau announces actual work to start in August on landfill for the weak seabed area on Henoko’s north side. (20jn24

Splendor of Okinawa: Pink Wood Sorrel, roadside Uruma, 4jn24


Plans are underway to relocate the US Military Futenma Airfield in Ginowan to Henoko in Nago, both in Okinawa Prefecture.


The Defense Ministry’s Okinawa Defense Bureau has notified the Prefecture that actual work will start in Oura Bay on the north side of Henoko on 1 August. This work will begin the actual landfill of a wide area of weak seabed and is expected to be a difficult chore.

　

One fourth of the proposed landfill area on the south side of Henoko has already been turned into ground surface. However, on the north side, real work can just now get started, because, at the end of last year, the Government used its exercise of proxy, in place of the Prefecture, to give itself permission for design changes needed for work to shore up the weak seabed. So, this January work began to construct an offshore storage area, or yard.


But, now that the proxy permission has been affirmed, the Government and the Prefecture, based on their 2013 memorandum, will cooperate on measures for actual design and environmental protection. According to the Prefecture, on 18 June, in response to its fourth query, the Government revealed its plan for beginning actual work from August.


The total rubble needed for the landfill will be about 20.2 million cubic meters. As of this March, about 16% of that has been used for landfill. Hereafter, the Okinawa Defense Bureau will carry out work on strengthening the weak seabed and such by driving over 70 thousand piles with sand into the seabed. However, such a job as this is unprecedented, since it has been pointed out that, at its deepest, the weak seabed extends 90 meters below the sea surface.


On another front, in the 16 June Okinawa  Prefectural Assembly Election, ruling party supporters of Governor Denny Tamaki, who touts, “We oppose Henoko!”, took a drubbing, falling to become a minority ruling party.


Original Japanese article: Asahi Digital, published Wednesday 19 June 2024 at 19:10.  Byline: Taro Ono.   https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/631edd63f460d92db27b94028988ba65bf503dae


Denny in the News: news about Governor Denny Tamaki.


Denny Tamaki is the governor of Okinawa Prefecture in Japan. Although Okinawa is important as an international tourist destination and a key element in strategic US Military Forces, its governor receives very little coverage in the Japanese press and almost none in the English language media. 


This blog hopes to  translate one news article a day on the governor.  It is unsponsored and unauthorized. The translator simply hopes to improve his skills and perhaps give the governor an English speaking audience. 


Any suggestion on improving my translation will be gratefully accepted. However, please leave political comments for another forum.


Where they occur, words and phrases in Ryukyuan (the Okinawan language) are rendered in italics and translated in parentheses. Names  whose readings are uncertain are rendered as Name (=Kanji?) as in Nagayuki (=長行?). Any corrections in such instances would be gratefully appreciated.

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