HUNDREDS of Okinawans protested outside a US Navy telecommunications facility yesterday as police barred a local landowner from entering the site after his 20 year lease expired.
The demonstration near the biggest US airbase in Asia came only a day after tens of thousands of Japanese protested in Tokyo against the US military presence in Okinawa, and barely two weeks before President Clinton arrives in Japan on April 16th for a three day visit.
In Tokyo, the Prime Minister, Mr Ryutaro Hashimoto, said he was concerned about the latest Okinawa flare up, adding he had heard that unidentified "extremists" from the Japanese mainland had travelled to the island.
"The situation in Okinawa has become serious," he said. "If we fail to resolve the problem in time for the planned visit by President Clinton, the Japanese situation will deteriorate.
Backed by local outrage over the rape of a 12 year old schoolgirl by three US servicemen in September, landowners, fed up with the intense US military presence in Japan, have been refusing to renew leases as they expire.
The Okinawa governor has also refused a court order to forcibly renew the leases himself, forcing the central government to resort to emergency measures to requisition the land under a complicated set of legal procedures.
I can't stand my land being used for military purposes," said Mr Shoichi Chibana, a 47 year old Okinawan shopkeeper who owns a small plot inside the telecommunications facility, the lease of which expired on Sunday.
Earlier yesterday, Mr Chibana filed a request with the Naha District Court for the immediate return of his 236 square metre plot. But police prevented him from entering his land, citing the central government's instructions that such a move could bring "unnecessary confusion" to the island, where anti US feeling has been increasing for several months.
Carrying his son on his shoulders, Mr Chibana marched on the site with about 500 other residents and supporters as light rain fell in the early afternoon.
"Don't let Americans use our land for military purposes," a demonstrator shouted in front of a white barrier erected around the facility last week.
Central government authorities mobilised 1,500 riot police for the protest. The Chief Cabinet Secretary, Mr Seiroku Kajiyama, said the dispute could have an adverse impact on Mr Clinton's three day visit to Japan from April 16th.
Meanwhile, the Okinawa governor, Mr Masahide Ota, filed an appeal with the Supreme Court yesterday in an effort to reverse last week's court ruling ordering him to renew the expiring leases.
On Sunday, tens of thousands of people demonstrated in Tokyo against the huge military presence in Okinawa, where more than half of the 47,000 US troops stationed in Japan are located.
In Okinawa itself, about 1,000 anti US activists attended a concert in a show of support for Mr Chibana and other landowners refusing to renew leases.
The central government has already asked Okinawa's land expropriation committee to permit emergency use of the land for six months, pending a series of legal procedures enabling the land to be forcibly seized.