The Japan Ground Self-Defense Force on 9 July opened Camp Saga, a new installation next to Saga Airport in Kyushu, and accepted the first V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor transport at 10:20 a.m., marking the start of a long-delayed relocation plan. The Defence Ministry will transfer all 17 Ospreys from their temporary home at Camp Kisarazu in Chiba Prefecture by mid-August and assign roughly 420 personnel to the new base. Flight operations are expected to average 16 take-offs and landings a day, up to five of them at night, using the airport runway. Camp Saga forms part of Tokyo’s “Southwest Shift” aimed at strengthening the defence of Kyushu, Okinawa and the Nansei island chain amid China’s expanding maritime activities. The aircraft are intended to work closely with the amphibious rapid deployment brigade in nearby Sasebo to move troops quickly to remote islands. The move concludes more than a decade of negotiations with local stakeholders and replaces a five-year provisional deployment in Kisarazu. While Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba highlighted the Osprey’s extended range and potential for disaster relief, residents and fishermen staged protests over noise and safety following recent crashes involving the aircraft.