By MATTHEW M. BURKE AND AYA ICHIHASHI | STARS AND STRIPES Published: January 22, 2021 CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa – Okinawans called on President Joe Biden this week to reconsider construction of a new Marine Corps airfield on the island, while others in Japan hope he’ll push for an accounting of Japanese citizens kidnapped by North Korea. The relocation of Marine Corps Air Station Futenma out of an urban area to a site under construction farther north at Camp Schwab in the Henoko district is a sticking point with many Okinawans. Most voters in a February 2019 referendum, 72%, opposed the plan. Just over half the prefecture’s 1.15 million registered voters turned out.
In 2019, an incendiary device was unsuccessfully employed by an unknown intruder outside the office of the Okinawa Defense Bureau. The device failed to detonate and no one was injured, but the message and intent were clear. The incident happened a few days after a Japanese government announcement that controversial construction and landfill work at Camp Schwab would resume. A quarter century ago, the United States and Japan agreed to eventually close Marine Corps Air Station Futenma and relocate it to Camp Schwab after the brutal rape of a Japanese civilian by three service members in 1995. However, it took decades to get the project started, and its original projected completion date was six years ago.
By STARS AND STRIPES Published: January 14, 2021
Stars and Stripes is making stories on the coronavirus pandemic available free of charge. See other free reports here. Sign up for our daily coronavirus newsletter here. Please support our journalism with a subscription. TOKYO Japan’s capital city reported more than 2,000 new coronavirus patients Friday as a third wave that prompted an emergency declaration over much of the country until Feb. 7 continued unabated. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government confirmed 2,001 newly infected people, the fourth one-day total above 2,000 this month, according to metro government data and public broadcaster NHK. The city pandemic record is 2,447 new cases on Jan. 7.
. TOKYO – U.S. military commands in Japan and South Korea reported 63 new coronavirus patients as of 6 p.m. Monday, most of them new arrivals to U.S. Forces Korea since late December. In Tokyo, the metropolitan government on Monday announced that another 1,219 people have become infected with the virus, making a week straight of more than 1,000 cases each day, according to public broadcaster NHK. The number of patients deemed seriously ill, 131, is at a pandemic high, the report said. A handful of U.S. bases in the greater Tokyo metro area have imposed 8 p.m.-5 a.m. curfews and other measures to comply with a state of emergency declared Thursday by the Japanese government until Feb. 7.
By SETH ROBSON | STARS AND STRIPES Published: January 6, 2021 YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan A pale blue United Nations banner flutters alongside the American, Japanese and POW/MIA flags over the home of U.S. Forces Japan in western Tokyo. That banner is one of the few clues that Yokota, a key U.S. airlift hub in Japan, has also been the headquarters of the United Nations Command-Rear, since 2007. It’s a subordinate of South Korea-based U.N. Command, led by the head of U.S. Forces Korea, Army Gen. Robert Abrams. The command’s work in Japan is vital to the defense of South Korea since it would help facilitate reinforcements that would head to the peninsula through Japanese ports in an emergency. It also facilitates the missions of warships and aircraft that monitor North Korea’s efforts to evade U.N. sanctions.