Okinawa Governor Takeshi Onaga formally requested at a meeting with Tamayo Marukawa, the Minister in charge of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, to hold the karate competition of the Tokyo games on Okinawa. Karate has been awarded a slot to be one of the new sporting events in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

Making his appeal to the government and other related organizations, Onaga especially requested to have the Karate Kata competition held in the island prefecture. Onaga asked for officials’ and their organizations’ cooperation to hold the competition and the pre-event training camp in Okinawa when he had a meeting with Yosuke Tsuruho, Minister of State for Okinawa and Northern Territories Affairs, in August. He is supposed to make his appeal Tuesday to the Japan Karatedo Federation.

Onaga also stated that he had “constructive” discussions with the government about applying the funds for the new Okinawa MICE facility to be built on the border of Nishihara and Yonabaru, and is working out details with the Cabinet Office.

Regarding the MICE project, Okinawa prefecture reportedly abandoned the effort to apply for fund distribution to buy the land for the project because the Cabinet Office was hesitant to approve it. At a press conference on Friday, Onaga said that he would like to proceed with the MICE project without delay.

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