As island prepares to mark 50 years since Okinawa was returned to Japanese sovereignty, Jinshiro Motoyama is in no mood to celebrate

Earlier this week, Jinshiro Motoyama placed a banner outside the office of Japan’s prime minister, sat on a folding chair, and stopped eating. It was a dramatic gesture, but the 30-year-old activist believes desperate measures are needed to end the long US military presence in his birthplace, Okinawa.

Located roughly 1,000 miles south of Tokyo in the East China Sea, Okinawa is a speck in the ocean that comprises 0.6% of Japan’s total land area but hosts about 70% of the US’s military bases in Japan and more than half of its 47,000 troops.