Disney in Okinawa city? Japanese mayor wants resort built after US air base relocates
The mayor of an Okinawa city, home to a key US air base, said on Tuesday he aims to have a Disney Resort facility built on a land area to be vacated after the base is relocated, with Tokyo expressing full support for the idea.
After holding talks at the prime minister's office with Ginowan Mayor Atsushi Sakima, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said he heard a “very much dream-inspiring” idea from Sakima, for whose realisation the central government “will pledge to work all out.”
The top government spokesman also revealed that he has already introduced executives at Oriental Land Co., the operator of Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea theme parks, to the mayor.
The central government will “convey the city of Ginowan's strong request (to Oriental Land) and fully cooperate with the city”, Suga told a press conference following the talks.
Such a cooperative attitude is apparently aimed at breaking years of a deadlock over the relocation of the US Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, sitting in a crowded residential area in Ginowan.
It is to be relocated under an accord between the Japanese and US governments to a less densely populated area in Nago, also in Okinawa Prefecture, but the option is unacceptable to many people in Okinawa wanting to see a visible reduction in the heavy US military presence in the tropical island prefecture.
By showing the central government's willingness to help Ginowan attract a Disney facility, it is likely soliciting understanding from the people of Okinawa to relocate the airbase to Nago.
A spokesperson at Oriental Land confirmed to Kyodo News that the city of Ginowan has asked the company to build a facility there but added that the company “has just received such a request and will take time in studying it”.
