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Henoko seabed survey on hold for month [News]
The fight between the central government and Okinawa Prefectural government over the landfill preparation work for the Furenma replacement f...Read More

2014: Guard changes, but Futenma remains… [News]
For the third year in a row, the plans to move MCAS Futenma to a new base in Henoko, demands to move it out of the prefecture, and oppositio...Read More

Futenma, Senkakus provide most memorable… [News]
By Bill Charles If Futenma Marine Corps Air Station didn’t exist, and if China didn’t have its eye on the Senkaku Islands in southwestern Ok...Read More
Nago civil servant nabbed for sex with minor [News]
Yonabaru Police on arrested 32-year-old Nago City government worker Wednesday on suspicion of engaging in sexual relationship with an underage girl. According to police, Hideki Yoh...
Drifter arrested for slashing pachinko employee’s neck [News]
Naha Police arrested a 65-year-old unemployed homeless man Tuesday evening on suspicion of attempted murder. According to police, the man was arrested on spot in a pachinko parlor ...
Mixed martial arts champ opens day care service [News]
Mitsuhisa Sunabe, an Okinawan mixed martial arts champion opened Mar. 1st an after school day care service for children with physical challenges. The facility, named CrossLine Day ...
MS Queen Elizabeth makes port call to Naha [News]
One of most recognizable names among world’s cruise ships is without doubt MS Queen Elizabeth. The 99,000-ton and 2081-passenger-capacity Cunard cruise liner moored at Naha Port fo...
Direct flights begin between Naha and Iwakuni [News]
All Nippon Airways, ANA, has opened a new route between Naha and Iwakuni, a city in Yamaguchi Prefecture. The inaugural flight on the daily round trip took place Sunday, Mar. 27th....
Park Avenue to change into two-way street [News]
Officials in Okinawa City say Chuo Park Avenue will become a two-way street by 2020 to improve the flow of traffic in the area. The change is also expected to help in the area re-v...
Singer Natchy invited to perform in U.S. event [News]
Okinawan singer Natchy has received an invitation to perform at the International Festival of Language & Culture (INTFLC) scheduled to be held in the second half of April in Wa...
U.S. Navy sailor admits to raping tourist [News]
Police investigators say that the U.S. Navy sailor under arrest on suspicion of raping a tourist from Fukuoka has admitted to the charge under questioning. Naha Police arrested 24-...
Graduation ceremonies at prefecture universities held [News]
The graduation ceremony of the University of the Ryukyus took place at Okinawa Convention Center in Ginowan City on Mar. 18th. 1,806 students graduated from the university in fisca...
Body of missing seaman found at Gushikawa coast [News]
Nakagusuku Coast Guard officials announced that the body of a 19-year-old oil tanker crew member, who had been missing since Mar. 10th, was found by a seawall south of Gushikawa Th...
2,500 protest in Henoko against rape of tourist [News]
According to organizers, about 2,500 people gathered Monday in front of the main gate of Camp Schwab in Henoko to protest the alleged rape of a female tourist in Naha. A U.S. sailo...
Influenza death rate in Okinawa highest in Japan [News]
Yoshihiro Takayama, a doctor specializing in infectious diseases at the Okinawa Prefectural Chubu Hospital reported Mar. 17th that the death rate of influenza in Okinawa is the hig...
Prefecture sets up IT-based tourist guidebook [News]
The Prefecture Urban Planning and Monorail Division has made a multilingual combination of a guidebook, website and Internet application to encourage foreign visitors to take advan...
Japan’s earliest picking of tealeaves begins in Nago [News]
Picking of ‘Ichibancha’, the first tea leaves of the season, started at a tea plantation in Isagawa, Nago City, in the morning of Mar. 15th. The harvest is the earliest in the coun...
U.S. Navy sailor arrested for raping tourist in Naha [News]
Naha Police arrested a U.S. Navy sailor, Sunday, on suspicion of raping a female tourist in a hotel in Naha. According to police, 24-year-old seaman Justin Castellanos from Camp Sc...
Elderly woman killed in traffic accident [News]
A mini car driven by a 32-year-old housewife hit a 74-year-old unemployed woman at the entrance of a supermarket parking lot in Akamichi, Ginowan, Thursday morning. According to Gi...
Woman’s skeleton found on Mt. Yaedake [News]
A skeleton female body was discovered on Mt. Yaedake in Okayo, Motobu Town on Mar. 10th. According to Motobu Police, the body has not been identified, and based on the condition of...
Collision with police lands pair on motorbike to hospital [News]
A police patrol car collided with a motorcycle on Route 6 in Zakimi, Yomitan Village at 03:15 on Tuesday. The motorcycle fell down, and a 19-year-old man from Urasoe who had been d...
High school entrance tests today and tomorrow [News]
The annual general entrance examinations to the prefectural public high schools for the April 1 start of the school year are taking place at all 78 prefectural public high and spec...
Vandals destroy 123 bashofu trees in Ogimi [News]
123 Bashofu trees, Japanese fiber banana trees that are the source of raw material for woven local textile called ‘Bashofu’, were found cut and overran in Kijyoka, Ogimi Village on...