The Japanese government Tuesday overturned a move by Okinawa's governor to stop work on a U.S. base relocation site, marking the latest fight in a long-running battle over the controversial project.

The proposal to move the Futenma air base, first mooted in 1996, has become the focus of anger among locals, who insist it should be shut and a replacement built elsewhere in Japan or overseas.

Six people were injured when a U.S. military helicopter failed to land properly on an American ship during an exercise off Japan's Okinawa island on Wednesday, the U.S. military said.

A U.S. Army H-60 helicopter was "damaged during a hard deck landing" aboard the vehicle cargo ship USNS Red Cloud 20 miles (32 kilometers) east of the island, U.S. Forces Japan said in a statement.

Tokyo said Tuesday it would temporarily halt work on a controversial new U.S. military base in southern Okinawa as talks continue with local officials opposed to the project.

The one-month delay comes as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is seeing his popularity plunge, largely owing to his efforts to expand the role of pacifist Japan's military.

The combative governor of Okinawa vowed Wednesday he would continue his fight to block the construction of a new U.S. airbase on the southern Japanese island, as he readied to take his case to Washington.

Takeshi Onaga told reporters in Tokyo he was "confident" he could stop the development of a base at the rural coastal spot of Henoko, which would replace the existing Futenma military facility in built-up Ginowan.

Thousands of people rallied in Okinawa in southern Japan on Sunday in protest against a controversial U.S. airbase on the island, as a two-decade-old bitter row over the relocation of the site drags on.

Okinawa is home to more than half of the 47,000 U.S. service personnel stationed in Japan as part of a defense alliance, a proportion many islanders say is too high.

Typhoon Noul crashed into the southern Japanese island chain of Okinawa Tuesday, after killing two people in the Philippines, bringing surging waves and howling winds as it headed towards the mainland.

Heavy rain and gale-force gusts were lashing a wide swathe of the archipelago, television footage showed, as pedestrians struggled with their umbrellas and scurried for shelter.

The governor of Okinawa Monday ordered a halt to construction of a controversial U.S. military airbase, the latest twist in a saga that has riven southern Japan for decades.

Setting up a new clash between the central government in Tokyo and the independently minded semi-tropical island chain, Takeshi Onaga told a news conference he could revoke a drilling permit if the defense ministry does not comply with his order.

Residents of Japan's Okinawa Sunday elected a governor who opposes plans to relocate a U.S. military base within the island chain, a fresh setback in efforts to resolve a thorny issue in military relations.

Voters in the southern prefecture chose Takeshi Onaga over the incumbent Hirokazu Nakaima, NHK, Jiji Press and Nippon Television reported, citing their exit polls.

Prominent U.S. liberal activists on Wednesday pledged solidarity with Okinawa residents opposed to a U.S. military base, despite efforts by Japan and the United States to finalize a relocation plan.

More than 100 scholars and activists including the filmmakers Oliver Stone and Michael Moore signed a joint statement opposed to construction of a U.S. Marine base in Nago, a quiet town on the east coast of the subtropical Japanese island, to replace the aging and unpopular Futenma Air Station.

Japan's Okinawa on Friday approved the long-stalled relocation of a controversial U.S. military base, the defense ministry said, a breakthrough that looks set to remove a decades-long source of friction between Tokyo and Washington.

Local bureaucrats signed a document that gives the governor's green light to a landfill, paving the way for the construction of a new base on the coast.