TOKYO, June 17 (Xinhua) -- A dispute resolution panel on Monday rejected a complaint filed by Okinawa prefectural government over the central government's authorization in last October of landfill work for the relocation of a U.S. air base within the prefecture.
The southwestern prefecture filed the request in April with the Central and Local Government Dispute Management Council, which is tasked with issuing recommendations when it recognizes the state has illegally intervened in a municipality's administration.
Okinawa insisted that the land minister's decision to annul the prefecture's retraction of its permission to conduct the landfill work was illegal.
However, the panel members on Monday unanimously decided to reject Okinawa's request, saying that the minister's decision does not qualify as a dispute that requires the council's examination.
Council Chair Kazuhiro Tomikoshi told reporters that the argument made by Okinawa was the same as the one it made the previously, so the council's decision is also the same as the one it reached in February.
In February, the panel made a similar decision after Okinawa sought arbitration in last November to block the landfill work.
The central and Okinawa governments have long been at odds over the relocation of the Futenma base from a crowded residential district in Ginowan to the less populated Henoko coastal area of Nago.
Many local people have called for the Futenma base to be moved outside the southern island prefecture, which hosts the bulk of U.S. military facilities in Japan.
