Takaichi pledges effort to ease Okinawa’s US base burden
At the first central-local Okinawa Policy Council meeting in 13 years, the prime minister asked ministers to consider prefectural support in the fiscal 2027 budget. Governor Genta Koja sought a date for returning Futenma land.
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi pledged to seek visible results in reducing the burden of US military bases in Okinawa at a meeting with Governor Genta Koja on 6 November 2026, according to straitstimes.com. The Okinawa Policy Council meeting was the first between central and local governments under the framework in 13 years. Takaichi also instructed Cabinet ministers to consider support for the prefecture while preparing the fiscal 2027 budget.
Koja asked when Futenma land will be returned
Koja asked the government to clarify when land occupied by Marine Corps Air Station Futenma would be returned. He later told reporters that officials had given no specific date at the meeting, the Kyodo report published by The Straits Times said.
The question concerns a long-running plan, under a 1996 Japan-US agreement, to relocate Futenma within Okinawa to a coastal site in Henoko, in the city of Nago. Foundation work was under way at the planned site, which extends into a bay, while some Okinawans have called for the base to be moved outside the prefecture. Koja is the first governor in 12 years to back the Henoko relocation plan; his predecessor, Denny Tamaki, opposed it.
Okinawa’s 2027 development budget remains undecided
Koja campaigned mainly on economic issues and pledged to increase central government development funding. Okinawa’s initial request for fiscal 2027 was 289.7 billion yen. The government could raise the budget above 300 billion yen, according to sources familiar with the matter cited by Kyodo, but the report describes this as a possibility, not a final decision. Development budgets had been in the 260 billion yen range since fiscal 2022, after falling from the 300 billion yen range. The report said disagreements over the relocation plan were seen as contributing to cuts during Tamaki’s tenure.
Base burden remains a central issue
The meeting took place in a prefecture that hosts most of the roughly 50,000 US troops stationed in Japan, according to Fox News, which credited the Associated Press for its report. Okinawa remained under US control from the end of the Second World War until 1972, Fox reported. The council also discussed the October indictment of a US serviceman in the alleged murder and robbery of a local woman. Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi told the meeting that Japan and the United States had agreed to improve education for US military personnel, according to Kyodo’s account.
Read in depth: World
Marco Rubio says he plans to serve through Trump’s term
The secretary of state dismissed reports he may leave the administration, while refusing to discuss his political plans for 2028.
Endangered ʻakiapōlāʻau uses its whole body to gouge wood for food
Reuters reports new anatomical findings on how the Hawaiian honeycreeper opens branches and probes for insect larvae, with its legs helping drive the strikes.
Sources and context
- Japan PM Takaichi vows effort to reduce Okinawa base burden in first meeting in 13 yearsThe Straits Times (Kyodo News report)
- US Marine dies in training incident at Japan military base, officials sayFox News (Associated Press contributed to report)
AI-assisted article checked against the listed sources. NewsJaws did not conduct interviews or attend the reported events.