Fisheries Minister Quashes Okinawa Governor's Instructions, Lets Futenma Project Continue

NAHA, JAPAN - MARCH 30: Okinawa Prefecture Governor Takeshi Onaga speaks to media reporters at the prefectural headquarters on March 30, 2015 in Naha, Okinawa, Japan. Fisheries minister Yoshimasa Hayashi temporarily invalidated the Okinawa governor Onaga's instructions to suspend seabed surveying work for a new U.S. military air station, allowing the contentious project to continue. Onaga on March 23 instructed the Okinawa Defense Bureau to halt its seabed survey off the Henoko district of Nago, saying the work was damaging coral reef. He indicated that if work was not suspended by March 30, he would rescind the prefecture's approval to crush rock reef for the project. The survey is part of the process to relocate U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma from its present site in Ginowan. (Photo by The Asahi Shimbun via Getty Images)