Cultural News, 2010 September Issue By Alan Gleason in Tokyo Tucked away on the fifth floor of a nondescript downtown Tokyo office building, the room is of modest dimensions. Yet to enter it is to step back in time, into one of the impossibly crowded little neighborhood toyshops, stuffed with gaudily dyed kites, paper...
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Cultural News, 2010 August Issue By Motoaki Kamiura Translated by Alan Gleason The Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), which had decided to move the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station at Futenma to the Henoko area of Okinawa, took a beating in the Upper House elections this past July. The winner of the Okinawa seat,...
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Cultural News, 2010 June Issue By Motoaki Kamiura, Military Analyst Translated by Alan Gleason During the Vietnam War, the U.S. military bases in Okinawa served as the launching pad for the bombardment of North Vietnam, but also for an economic boom fed by “special procurements” for the war. There was a time when local...
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Cultural News, April 2010 Issue By Motoaki Kamiura, Military Analyst Translated by Alan Gleason The controversy over where to move the U.S. Marine Corps’ Futenma Air Station from its current location in central Okinawa continues to rage in Japan. For years Okinawans have been upset about the hazards posed by Futenma, which lies in...
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Cultural News, 2009 December Issue By Motoaki Kamiura, Military Analyst Translated by Alan Gleason And indeed, different members of the Hatoyama Cabinet are leaning in different directions as they desperately seek a solution. Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa supports moving the Futenma facilities to a more isolated coastal location at the Marines’ Camp Schwab; this...
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Cultural News, 2009 October Issue By Motoaki Kamiura, Military Analyst Translated by Alan Gleason The odds are growing that the controversial 2006 agreement between the U.S. and Japanese governments to move the U.S. Marine Corps’ Futenma Air Station to another location on the island of Okinawa will be cancelled. Indeed, perhaps it already has...
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