U.S. bases in Okinawa

Japan’s new prime minister has long called for more reciprocity in the alliance, including revisions in the Status of Forces Agreement and Japan-U.S. Security Treaty.

The Indo-Pacific’s increasingly unstable security environment will ensure that Okinawa remains at the center of Japan’s defense strategy. 

Even while Tokyo moves to bolster its defense capabilities, residents of Okinawa continue to protest the militarization of their homeland.

Civil society groups claim that the tiltrotor aircraft has had a significant impact on the local population's quality of life.

The burden of hosting U.S. military bases continues to be a serious issue for Okinawa, even half a century after its return to Japan.

Fifty years after Okinawa was returned to Japan’s control, locals continue to decry the outsized burden the island group carries in the Japan-U.S. security alliance.

Author Jon Mitchell discusses the environmental contamination that has accompanied the U.S. military presence in Japan, Guam, the Marshall Islands, and elsewhere.

The U.S. military has contaminated the drinking water for almost half-a-million Japanese – but Japanese authorities can’t do anything about it.

The cancellation of the controversial missile defense program is seen as discrimination by Okinawans, who have long fought base construction on similar grounds.

The prolonged showdown intensified as the contentious landfill construction hit a design plan snag.

Denny Tamaki met with Prime Minister Abe and the U.S. embassy after a recent referendum rejecting a new U.S. base.