Kinser military warehouses to be relocated to Chibana

Okinawa City Mayor Sachio Kuwae has reportedly agreed to accept a plan to relocate the U.S. military warehouses on Camp Kinser to Kadena Ammunitions Storage Area in Chibana.

According to sources in Okinawa City administration, Kuwae has not officially agreed to accept the plan, but says that he would make a comprehensive judgment on the matter after meeting Friday with Kenji Wakamiya, the Parliamentary Senior Vice-Minister of Defense.

Kuwae has expressed his willingness to accept the plan if he can obtain consensus on solving the problem of a possible traffic congestion moving the warehouses to Chibana is likely to cause, as well as cementing the financial aid for a new multi-purpose arena that is to be constructed in Koza Athletic Park.

Chibana first expressed his willingness to cooperate with the transfer plan at an Aug. 8 conference with Okinawa Governor Takeshi Onaga.

One of Chibana’s pledges is to build a multi-purpose arena at Koza Athletic Park with a capacity of 10,000 people. Building the arena was one condition to Okinawa City becoming the official hometown of the Ryukyu Golden Kings pro-basketball team, which starts its first season in the top division of the new B.League this fall.

Kuwae asked the Ministry of Defense for a large amount of financial subsidy for the arena in exchange to accepting the transfer when he met ministry officials to discuss the relocation.

Miyagi_8.11

21:54 29 Mar , 2024