People hold banners as they listen to a speaker during a rally against a US military base in Okinawa, in front of the parliament in Tokyo, Japan, on February 21, 2016. ©AFP
(VOVworld) – Approximately 28,000 people surrounded Japan's parliament on Sunday to protest against government plans to relocate a US military base on Okinawa island. Similar rallies took place in the ities of Toyama, Okayama, Sapporo, Nagoya, and Osaka. The United States and Japan agreed in 1996 to relocate the base, currently in a heavily populated area, to a new site in Henoko, but many residents of the island rejected proposal and want the base moved altogether.