In a decrepit office below a billiard hall in the city of Naha, capital of Okinawa in southern Japan, a small group is dreaming of a new country.
Surrounded by flags showing three stars on two bands of blue, symbolising the Okinawan sea and sky, they represent a revived movement for the Ryukyu Islands, which include Okinawa, to declare independence from Japan.
“Support for Ryukyu independence is growing,” says Chousuke Yara, a perennial electoral candidate for the movement. “People are coming to understand that Okinawa was originally part of the Ryukyu kingdom, then invaded by Japan and made Japanese by education.”
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