Defense & Security

U.S. Bases in Okinawa to Be Listed as Security-Linked Sites

REUTERS/Issei Kato
A U.S. military plane takes off at the Kadena U.S. Air Force Base in Kadena Town on the southern island of Okinawa, Japan August 24, 2023.

Jiji Press

17:48 JST, December 27, 2023

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — The government plans to designate 184 sites in 28 of the country’s 47 prefectures as critical to national security under a related law, in the fourth round of such designations, it was learned Tuesday.

Among the 184 sites are U.S. military facilities Okinawa Prefecture, including the Marine Corps’ Futenma air base in the city of Ginowan and Camp Schwab in the city of Nago. They would be the first U.S. military facilities in Okinawa to be designated.

The planned sites also include Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.’s Fukushima No. 2 power plant in Fukushima Prefecture, which is currently under decommissioning work, and other nuclear facilities throughout the country.

The fourth round of designations is expected by the end of fiscal 2023, bringing the total number of designated sites to 583.

Under the law, areas within about 1 kilometer of nuclear power plants, airports and other key facilities, as well as remote border islands, are considered surveillance zones.

Of these areas, those around facilities serving as command centers are special surveillance zones.

In these zones, the government is allowed to collect information on who owns land or buildings and on how the properties are used.