OSAKA ¨C Okinawa Gov. Takeshi Onaga¡¯s death Wednesday night greatly complicates the already difficult and long-standing question of when, or even if, construction of an offshore replacement facility for the U.S.¡¯s Futenma base will ever be completed.
Onaga was a staunch opponent of the central government¡¯s plan to relocate U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma base to the Henoko coastal area of Nago, in the northern part of the prefecture¡¯s main island, from densely populated Ginowan in central Okinawa.
The governor¡¯s death at age 67 following a monthslong bout with pancreatic cancer came less than two weeks after he announced he was revoking his predecessor Hirokazu Nakaima¡¯s 2013 decision to approve the land reclamation permit needed for the Henoko project.
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