F/A-18s from Carrier Air Wing 5 at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, practice carrier landings on Iwo Jima, May 17, 2019. (Stars and Stripes)

CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa – Japan’s Defense Ministry began construction this week on a new island military base that will one day host U.S. Navy carrier-landing practice, a ministry spokesman said Friday.

Work began Thursday on the $1.6 billion Self-Defense Force base on Mageshima, an island about 20 miles south of Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan’s four main islands, a spokesman from the Kyushu Defense Bureau told Stars and Stripes by phone. The bureau represents Japan’s Ministry of Defense on the island.

Approximately 30 workers with chain saws and other equipment arrived by boat that morning at the 3-square-mile volcanic island, the Asahi newspaper reported Thursday. They will first clear the site before starting on the runways and storage facilities.

The project is expected to take four years, the spokesman said. Some government officials in Japan are required to speak to the media only on condition of anonymity.

Since 1991, U.S. Navy and Marine pilots have practiced carrier landings on Iwo Jima, also known as Iwo To, according to the ministry website. Iwo Jima was the scene of a bloody but decisive battle near the end of World War II. Its distance from the main islands, its weather conditions and difficulty maintaining facilities there has led the Navy to seek an alternative site for years.

Japan has started construction for a military base on Mageshima that will one day host U.S. Navy carrier-landing practice (Wikimedia Commons)

News of the Mageshima construction came the same day the ministry uploaded its environmental impact assessment to the bureau website. The assessment was the final step required before construction could begin.

The assessment calls for an 8,000-foot main runway, a 6,000-foot crosswind runway, a port and ammunition and fuel storage facilities. The runways and storage facilities will be built first.

Runway construction should be finished in two years, the assessment said.

The national government last month set aside just over $2.3 billion of its record $51.4 billion draft defense budget for fiscal 2023 to relocate carrier-landing practice, including construction at Mageshima, according to the budget document.

The Mageshima base is needed for both disaster relief and to protect the Nansei island chain, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said Thursday. The Nansei, or Ryukyu, islands include Okinawa and run southwest from Kyushu to Taiwan.

“Given the most severe and complicated security environment of the post-war era, the government will build this facility and begin its operation at an early date,” Matsuno said during a press conference in Tokyo on Thursday.

He vowed to “politely” engage with the local community throughout the construction process.