TOKYO \u2014 Thousands of demonstrators formed a human chain around Japan’s parliament in Tokyo on Sunday, protesting the planned construction of a new US air base on the southern island of Okinawa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The protesters, who organizers said numbered about 15,000, surrounded the parliament building holding banners reading “No to Henoko,” in the latest rally against the controversial base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Henoko is a small coastal area on Okinawa where Tokyo and Washington plan to relocate the existing Futenma military facility, currently situated in built-up Ginowan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We must stop this construction,” said one of the protesters, Akemi Kitajima, 66.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The government is trying to force the plan no matter how strongly Okinawa says ‘no’ to it.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Okinawa is home to more than half of the 47,000 US service personnel stationed in Japan as part of a defense alliance, a proportion many islanders say is too high.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The plan to move Futenma, first mooted in 1996, has become the focus of anger among locals, who insist it should be shuttered and a replacement built elsewhere in Japan or overseas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But both Tokyo and Washington have repeatedly backed the plan, with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe last month insisting it was “the only solution”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The protesters on Sunday also expressed opposition to Washington’s scheduled deployment of CV-22 Osprey aircraft at US Yokota Air Base in Tokyo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Osprey is a hybrid aircraft with rotors that allow it to take off like a helicopter and engines that can tilt forward, enabling it to fly like an airplane at greater speed than a chopper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More than two dozen Ospreys have been already deployed at Okinawa’s Futenma air base, prompting safety concerns from local residents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sunday’s rally comes a week after 35,000 people on Okinawa, led by the anti-base governor, protested the new US base plan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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