The standoff over construction of a replacement facility for the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma threatens to develop into an all-out legal battle between the Abe administration and Okinawa Prefecture as the national government ignores the local governor's order to halt seabed drilling off Nago to reclaim land for the planned new U.S. military airfield. The administration should stop and think if such a confrontation — which would further complicate its relations with the prefecture that hosts the bulk of the U.S. military presence in Japan — would be a wise choice for the nation and its security alliance with the United States.

Gov. Takeshi Onaga, who was elected in November on a promise of halting Futenma's relocation to the Henoko district off Nago in the northern part of Okinawa Island, ordered the Okinawa Defense Bureau — a part of the Defense Ministry — on March 23 to stop the work that changes the shape of the seabed, including the drilling, within a week on the grounds that concrete blocks sunk by the bureau outside the designated area — where permission had been given for breaking underwater rocks and coral reefs needed for the drilling and reclamation — had damaged coral reefs.

The governor warned that the prefecture would withdraw the permission for breaking underwater rocks — issued by his predecessor, Hirokazu Nakaima, in August — if the bureau refuses to comply. But the national government continued its work off Henoko and filed a complaint seeking to invalidate the prefecture's order, calling it "gravely and obviously illegal."