Construction continues on a Marine Corps runway at Camp Schwab, Okinawa, Thursday, June 22, 2023. (Keishi Koja/Stars and Stripes)

CAMP SCHWAB, Okinawa — Japan’s Defense Ministry is moving forward to complete a U.S. military runway on Okinawa, even as lawsuits attempting to stop the project play out in Japanese courts.

The ministry solicited bids April 28 to fill two areas of Oura Bay at Camp Schwab, a Marine Corps base in rural northeastern Okinawa. The notice specifies 350,000 tons of stone to be in place by Sept. 30, 2024.

The runway is to replace Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in urban Ginowan, which Japanese officials consider inherently dangerous due to its proximity to homes and businesses.

Landfill in one area of the construction zone is nearly complete but a second, much larger parcel has been delayed by a flurry of lawsuits by Okinawa prefecture.

“It is unbelievable because we are under dispute with the government,” Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki said during a press conference Friday, according to a report that day by public broadcaster NHK.

Construction continues on a Marine Corps runway at Camp Schwab, Okinawa, Thursday, June 22, 2023. (Keishi Koja/Stars and Stripes)

The construction zone is divided into two main sections, 279 acres on the north side of Schwab and 91 acres to the south, according to the prefecture’s website. Development on the smaller parcel was 92% complete as of April 18, Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada said at the time.

The larger parcel has been on hold since April 21, 2020, when the Okinawa Defense Bureau, which represents the Defense Ministry on the island, asked Tamaki to approve changes to the construction plans.

Tamaki declined, which spurred Tokyo to intervene. The prefecture then filed three lawsuits; two were dismissed and are on appeal. The work was only 14% complete in April.

Hamada on Friday said work on the larger parcel may proceed under existing approvals despite the lawsuits.

“We think that there is no problem to solicit bids to be able to conduct the construction without interruption,” he said at the ministry in Tokyo.

Since the project's approval in 2013, successive Okinawa governors have attempted to use the courts to stop construction and move Marine air operations off island. They lost seven lawsuits and withdrew four.

The prefecture says the seabed in Oura Bay is too soft to support a runway and that construction threatens the endangered dugong, a cousin of the manatee protected by Japanese law.

The runway was supposed to be completed by 2014 but current estimates suggest 2032 or later. The project’s cost, which is being paid for by the Japanese government, is estimated at $6.9 billion.