Residents of the Japanese city of Iwakuni voted yesterday in a referendum on the future of a US Marine base, the outcome of which could affect broader talks on the relocation of US forces throughout Japan.
Opposition from Iwakuni and other communities worried about noise, accidents and crime associated with US bases has hampered efforts to finalize by the end of this month a plan to reorganize the nearly 50,000 US military personnel in Japan.
The realignment plan is part of a broader effort to transform the US military globally into a more flexible force.
In Japan, though, the stress has been on reducing tensions with communities where bases are located, especially on the southern island of Okinawa, reluctant host to the bulk of the US military presence.
With four hours left until the polls closed last night, turnout in Iwakuni, 720km west of Tokyo, was already 50.53 percent, an Iwakuni official said. At least 50 percent was needed for the referendum to be valid.
The final result was to be announced late in the evening, but locals said a high turnout would increase chances of the plan being rejected since many of those in favor would stay home.
While the result is not binding, a "no" vote would be a headache for Washington and Tokyo.
The two sides are also trying to finalize other parts of the plan, including how much Tokyo should pay to move some 7,000 Marines from Okinawa to Guam.
The result of the Iwakuni referendum is "one important voice of the people, so you can't treat it lightly," Senior Vice Foreign Minister Yasuhisa Shiozaki said last week. "But there will be a time when the central government has to make a final decision, while taking that into account."
Part of the plan calls for the transfer of 57 carrier-based planes and about 1,600 military personnel from Atsugi naval base near Tokyo -- where locals have long complained of noise -- to Iwakuni, already home to more than 3,000 Marines and 57 US aircraft.
Located 560km from the tense border between North and South Korea, US Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni would play a key role in any conflict involving the peninsula.
On Saturday, nearly 2,000 residents of Zama City in central Japan rallied to oppose plans to boost troop numbers and upgrade facilities at a US military base there.
An endangered baby pygmy hippopotamus that shot to social media stardom in Thailand has become a lucrative source of income for her home zoo, quadrupling its ticket sales, the institution said Thursday. Moo Deng, whose name in Thai means “bouncy pork,” has drawn tens of thousands of visitors to Khao Kheow Open Zoo this month. The two-month-old pygmy hippo went viral on TikTok and Instagram for her cheeky antics, inspiring merchandise, memes and even craft tutorials on how to make crocheted or cake-based Moo Dengs at home. A zoo spokesperson said that ticket sales from the start of September to Wednesday reached almost
‘BARBAROUS ACTS’: The captain of the fishing vessel said that people in checkered clothes beat them with iron bars and that he fell unconscious for about an hour Ten Vietnamese fishers were violently robbed in the South China Sea, state media reported yesterday, with an official saying the attackers came from Chinese-flagged vessels. The men were reportedly beaten with iron bars and robbed of thousands of dollars of fish and equipment on Sunday off the Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島), which Taiwan claims, as do Vietnam, China, Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines. Vietnamese media did not identify the nationalities of the attackers, but Phung Ba Vuong, an official in central Quang Ngai province, told reporters: “They were Chinese, [the boats had] Chinese flags.” Four of the 10-man Vietnamese crew were rushed
Scientists yesterday announced a milestone in neurobiological research with the mapping of the entire brain of an adult fruit fly, a feat that might provide insight into the brains of other organisms and even people. The research detailed more than 50 million connections between more than 139,000 neurons — brain nerve cells — in the insect, a species whose scientific name is Drosophila melanogaster and is often used in neurobiological studies. The research sought to decipher how brains are wired and the signals underlying healthy brain functions. It could also pave the way for mapping the brains of other species. “You might
INSTABILITY: If Hezbollah do not respond to Israel’s killing of their leader then it must be assumed that they simply can not, an Middle Eastern analyst said Israel’s killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah leaves the group under huge pressure to deliver a resounding response to silence suspicions that the once seemingly invincible movement is a spent force, analysts said. Widely seen as the most powerful man in Lebanon before his death on Friday, Nasrallah was the face of Hezbollah and Israel’s arch-nemesis for more than 30 years. His group had gained an aura of invincibility for its part in forcing Israel to withdraw troops from southern Lebanon in 2000, waging a devastating 33-day-long war in 2006 against Israel and opening a “support front” in solidarity with Gaza since
RSS