"TOKYO – Japanese voters delivered another blow to a stalled agreement to relocate a key American military base on Okinawa by electing a mayor on Sunday who campaigned on a promise to oppose the project.
The vote in the Okinawa city of Nago increases pressure on Japan’s left-leaning government to mothball an agreement with the U.S. about the base — risking a rift between the allies at a time of rising Asia security concerns from North Korea’s nuclear program and China’s rising military strength…"
Excellent. Not many people know this but the US soldiers in Korea and Okinawa are truly hated because there are apparently a great deal of rape cases in the area.
Well, there are two sides to it. I’ve met quite a few people in Japan who grew up in towns with US military bases on site (Sasebo, Yokosuka, Camp Zama, Misawa), and they all have said the townspeople absolutely love when the soldiers are in town and have really positive impressions of the military personnel. However, there is an obvious sample bias in that their positive impressions may have been what led them to talk to me (an American) at all. The ones with negative impressions might never have spoken to me in the first place.
When I was in Yokosuka, there were a few people “protesting” in front of the Naval Base. It was actually quite weird. They would stand around with a sign around their neck (which I couldn’t read) and would very quietly and politely hand you a flier (but only if you made eye contact). I thought it was some kind of religious group or something, but my friend translated the flier and it was about abuses by US Navy personnel and had all kinds of Japanese nationalist slogans. It was the most peaceful protest I have ever seen.