URGENT PRESS CONFERENCE
Takaaki Kagohashi, Lawyer

The speech and Q & A will be in Japanese with English interpretation

Lawyer in Dugong Lawsuit Against Relocation of a Military Base to Henoko

As the Hatoyama government struggles with the issue of the Japan-U.S. agreement to relocate the Marine Corps Futemma air station within Okinawa Prefecture, lawyer Takaaki Kagohashi and environmental groups are protesting the plan to move the airfield to a new facility to be built at the Marines' Camp Schwab in the Henoko district of Nago.

A lawsuit is also under way in the U.S. urging the U.S. Department of Defense not to build in the Heneko district, saying such construction in the habitat of the dugong, considered a natural treasure in Japan, violates the National Historic Preservation Act.

Various environmental groups, including the WWF Japan, Greenpeace Japan and the Nature Conservation Society of Japan, have joined Kagohashi's group in urging both governments to scrap the plan altogether, so as to protect the area which is known as home to the dugong, an endangered species of marine mammal, and a vast coral reef.

Junior coalition partner the Social Democratic Party of Japan is also threatening to quit the coalition government if it decides to go along with the existing relocation plan, prompting Prime Minister Hatoyama to accelerate efforts to consider a new relocation site.

Takaaki Kagohashi, Lawyer