Protesters hold placards denouncing the deployment of US military aircraft Osprey MV-22 during a demonstration in front of the Iwakuni city hall in Iwakuni, Yamaguchi prefecture in western Japan, on Sunday, one day before the arrival of a cargo ship carrying the aircraft to the US Marine base in the city. Washington formally informed Tokyo in late June it would go ahead with a planned deployment of the Osprey aircraft at the marine corps airbase of Futenma near Naha on Okinawa island in October. Photo: AFP