CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa – Okinawa prefecture on Friday sued the Japanese government to again try to block further construction of a Marine Corps runway into Oura Bay at Henoko.
The prefecture’s suit, filed in Fukuoka High Court in Naha, seeks to reinstate Okinawa’s decision to reject a construction change application by the runway builders, a spokesman for the prefecture’s Henoko Base Construction Countermeasures Division told Stars and Stripes on Monday.
Tetsuo Saito, Japan’s minister of land, infrastructure, transport and tourism, overruled the prefecture earlier this year at the request of the Ministry of Defense.
The central government’s appeal to the minister was “illegal,” according to a statement from Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki on Friday. The prefecture’s lawsuit demands that Saito annul his decision, the statement said.
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