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Military
Tokunoshima Plan Dies
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Tokunoshima
Tokyo -- The Kan administration is poised to abandon the plan to have Tokunoshima Island in Kagoshima Prefecture host US military exercises.
The plan had been forwarded by former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama as a means to reduce the burden on Okinawa Prefecture, but it has been fiercely resisted by the residents of Tokunoshima.
In April, an estimated 15,000 of the island's residents turned out for an anti-base rally - a number representing more than half of the total population.
Now the central government has decided not to earmark funds in the FY 2011 budget to carry out the studies that would be necessary were the Tokunoshima plan really going forward.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku has denied that any final decision on the abandonment of the plan has really taken place, but the lack of budgetary funds tells the story.
Aside from the opposition from the local people, the financial costs involved in creating the facilities for US military exercises appears to have been among the decisive factors.
PanOrient News
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