Protesters greet U.S. V-22s in Japan

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OKINAWA, Japan, July 23 (UPI) -- Protesters voiced safety fears Monday as the U.S. military's hybrid Osprey V-22 aircraft arrived in Japan.

Stars and Stripes reported about 11 protest boats surrounded a Marine Corps base near Hiroshima as two squadrons of the aircraft arrived for inspection. The Bell Boeing tiltrotor aircraft are scheduled to be deployed to U.S. bases in Okinawa

"We want to show [the government] that there is a strong protest here," Jungen Tamura, a city councilman in Iwakuni, was quoted as saying. "I can't agree with the Japanese government's stance to bring these dangerous planes just because the U.S. military wants it."

Japanese officials say they're concerned about the safety record of Osprey aircraft, which is designed to take off and land vertically like a helicopter or like a conventional airplane. The Osprey has a troubled safety history, however, with the MV-22 model being involved in 30 mishaps, the Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported last week.