Okinawa Environmental Justice Project

Amidst the Japanese government's relentless push to build a new U.S. military base at Henoko-Oura Bay, international support for Okinawa's fight to protect the precious environment has been growing. Mission Blue, a respected U.S. based NGO, has just designated the Henoko-Oura Bay Coastal Waters as a "Hope Spot."   Mission Blue has confirmed that this area is a special place on par with other natural wonders and Hope Spots around the world. It has also demonstrated that our fight to protect is worthwhile.  The message from Dr. Sylvia Earle , a renown marine biologist spearheading Mission Blue, is a great encouragement to those of us who want to protect the environment of Henoko-Oura Bay.  Dr. Sylvia Earle delivers her congratulation message Source: Mission Blue Meanwhile, the World Beyond War , a global peace movement to end all wars, has joined the celebration of this great news by inviting the Okinawa Environmental Justice Project to write an article...

Heart of Yambaru Forest or Northern Part of Okinawa Island On October 5, 2019, the Okinawa Environmental Justice Project and the Informed Public Project sent the IUCN World Heritage Programme an information document regarding the Japanese Environment Ministry's nomination of the "Northern Part of Okinawa Island" (NPOI) (or commonly known as Yambaru forest in Okinawa) for UNESCO World Natural Heritage status. See our document below. The NPOI is one of the four areas that the Ministry is hoping to have inscribed as World Natural Heritage sites in 2020. See the Ministry's Nomination document  and Nomination Annexes . The present information document is part of our continuing dialogue with the Programme. We have been successful in directing the attention of the Programme to the critical issues of the presence of the U.S. military's Northern Training Area (NTA) neighboring the NPOI.  In turn, the Japanese government has responded well to the Programme's rec...

"Henoko Blue" at Henoko-Oura Bay: Henoko Blue  is one of the 33 groups that sent a statement to U.S. Congress On September 13, thirty-three civil society groups from Okinawa, Japan, and the U.S. sent the members of both U.S. Senate and House Committees on Armed Services an endorsement statement for Section 1255 of the Senate version of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020 (S. 1790). See our statement below. Tilted as "Report on Distributed Lay-down of United States Forces in the Indo-Pacific Region," Section 1255 requests the DoD "to conduct a review of the planned distribution of members of the United States Armed Forces in Okinawa, Guam, Hawaii, Australia, and elsewhere (distributed lay-down)." This call for review is critical and timely for the peoples of the Pacific Region, especially for those of us living Okinawa, Japan. We argue in our statement, the Henoko Plan, the linchpin of the "distributed lay-down," ...