A U.S. Navy F/A-18E Super Hornet with Carrier Air Wing 5 conducts a touch-and-go landing on Iwo Jima, Japan, in May 2017. (James Guillory/U.S. Marine Corps)
Ongoing construction delays at a Japanese air base meant to host U.S. Navy carrier landing practice have stalled parts of the project again, this time due to buried debris and underground obstacles, according to Japan’s Ministry of Defense.
The base — under construction on Mageshima, a small volcanic island in Kagoshima prefecture — is intended to support field carrier landing practice ahead of deployments aboard the USS George Washington. The Navy’s Carrier Air Wing 5 now trains on Iwo Jima, nearly 850 miles from its home at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni.
A housing unit for Japanese personnel who will support the new base’s operations has been on hold since November after workers discovered large rocks and buried refuse during excavation, a spokesman for the Kyushu Defense Bureau said by phone Thursday. The bureau is an arm of Japan’s Defense Ministry.
Despite the setback, the housing delay is not expected to further affect the overall timeline, he said.
The airfield itself, however, is already three years behind schedule due to material and labor shortages. It is now projected to open in 2030 at a cost of more than $2.4 billion, a Defense Ministry spokesman said by email Friday.
The unit under construction is in Nishinoomote city on Tanegashima Island, about eight miles east of Mageshima, where the base is being built.
Five housing units are planned for approximately 200 Japanese workers assigned to the site with their families. Tanegashima — home to more than 28,000 residents as of 2019 — lies about 20 miles south of Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan’s four main islands.
“Underground obstacles” discovered during excavation led to the suspension of construction “to consider how to address this issue,” the bureau spokesman said.
Defense Minister Gen Nakatani, speaking Tuesday at a news conference in Tokyo, said workers encountered “significant rocks and underground obstacles such as empty bottles and old tires,” prompting reassessment. “We are currently making various arrangements with Nishinoomote city,” he said.
The bureau spokesman declined to elaborate on those arrangements. Some Japanese government officials speak to the press only on condition of anonymity.
Past delays have been attributed to poor weather, unsuitable soil and the effects of the January 2024 earthquake on the Noto Peninsula, which disrupted supply chains and labor availability.
The Mageshima base is intended to relieve pressure on other U.S. training sites in Japan, particularly Iwo Jima. While the Navy has conducted landing practice on the island for decades, it has long considered it unsuitable as a permanent site due to its remoteness and lack of alternative runways.
