Ryukyu Shimpo led with a report saying that concerning the detection of high levels of perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) in rivers and spring water near U.S. military bases in Okinawa, the paper has learned from documents obtained by the Informed-Public Project, an Okinawa-based environmental group, through information disclosure requests that the Defense Ministry’s Okinawa bureau could not conduct onsite surveys at Kadena AB in fiscal 2017 and 2018 because its requests to enter the base were turned down by the U.S. military. According to the paper, the defense bureau later decided to conduct a survey outside the base, although such a survey has not yet actually taken place. An official at the defense bureau reportedly told the paper: “There is no rule regulating PFOS in Japan. In the absence of a rule we can’t coordinate with the U.S. side on how to use survey results.”