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[Global Network Report] According to the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun on the 26th, on the morning of that day, the mayor of Ginowan City, Okinawa Prefecture, Matsukawa Masanori (70 years old), was confirmed dead at the hotel where he was staying. Based on the situation at the scene, the police believed that Matsukawa Masanori was likely to have died of illness.

File photo of the mayor of Ginowan City, Okinawa Prefecture, Matsukawa Masanori

According to reports, Matsukawa Masanori left for Tokyo on the 24th and talked with Chief Cabinet Secretary Hayashi Yoshimasa at the Prime Minister's Office on the 25th, requesting the Japanese government to take measures such as funding to promote the reuse of the land used by the Futenma base of the US military stationed in Japan. According to reports, as the mayor of Ginowan City, Matsukawa Masanori has been requesting the US and Japanese governments for many years to eliminate the safety hazards brought to local residents by the Futenma base in the city and return the base land as soon as possible.

The Asahi Shimbun reported that Matsukawa Masanori had originally planned to return from Tokyo on the 26th, but even at the gathering time, he still did not appear in the hotel lobby. The accompanying staff went to his room to check on him and found that Matsukawa was lying in the room without breathing.

In 1996, the Japanese and American governments reached an agreement on the return of the Futenma Air Base to the U.S. military. The Futenma Air Base had long been criticized for its noise nuisance and frequent accidents. The condition for returning the Futenma Air Base was to relocate it to other areas in the prefecture.

In 1996, the Japanese and American governments agreed to relocate the Futenma U.S. military base in Ginowan City, Okinawa Prefecture, to the Henoko area of ​​Nago City in the prefecture. The relocation required land reclamation and the construction of two new runways. The people of Okinawa strongly opposed this and demanded that the U.S. military base be completely relocated from Okinawa. Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki criticized the relocation plan as "relocation in name but new construction in reality" and called for further reduction of U.S. military garrison numbers until the base was closed and Futenma was returned to the people of Okinawa.

The base brings noise, pollution and safety hazards to local residents. On August 13, 2004, a large transport helicopter of the US military crashed and caught fire on the campus of Okinawa International University, which is adjacent to Futenma Airport, injuring three crew members on board. The school was on holiday at the time, and there were no casualties on the ground.

The Yomiuri Shimbun stated that Matsukawa Masanori was elected mayor of Ginowan City in September 2018 and was successfully re-elected in September 2022. With his position of not opposing the relocation of the Futenma base to the Henoko area, he has won the endorsement of the Japanese government and the Liberal Democratic Party.