NAHA, Japan – Voting began Sunday for the Okinawa gubernatorial election with the incumbent, who opposes a contentious U.S. military base relocation in the southern Japanese island prefecture, pitted against a candidate backed by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s ruling coalition.
The relocation of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma and measures to revitalize the local economy are among the key issues in the effective two-horse race between incumbent Denny Tamaki and Genta Koja, a former deputy Naha mayor who accepts the decades-old transfer plan.
The election outcome is crucial for Takaichi’s government as it forges ahead with the project despite local opposition. With years of legal battles between Okinawa and the central government over, work continues to build a replacement facility in the coastal Henoko area of Nago for the U.S. military base in densely populated Ginowan.
The governor’s race also serves as a precursor to unified local elections next spring. Ahead of Sunday’s vote, polls pointed to a neck-and-neck race between Tamaki, 66, and Koja, 42, with four other candidates trailing far behind.
The Futenma relocation is based on a 1996 agreement between the Japanese and U.S. governments to eliminate the dangers the busy base poses to the surrounding area.
Tamaki, during his two four-year terms, has opposed the Futenma relocation. Instead, the radio personality-turned-politician has demanded that the base be moved outside of the prefecture, which was under U.S. control between 1945 and 1972 following Japan’s defeat in World War II and still hosts the bulk of U.S. military installations.
The island’s past, along with concerns about safety, noise and the environment, has left many in the prefecture opposed to the base transfer, a situation which has persisted even as Okinawa’s strategic importance has increased amid heightened tensions with China.
The gubernatorial election is the first since Okinawa’s legal battles with the central government to block the relocation ended last year, with almost no practical measures left for the prefecture.
During campaigning, Koja has emphasized his pledge to double the prefecture’s per capita income, which has long been Japan’s lowest, by revitalizing the local economy that relies heavily on tourism. His push is seen as a strategy to win over voters prioritizing their daily lives over the base relocation.
Koja has said he would aim to secure a bigger budget for Okinawa’s development from the central government, after a downward trend in recent years as anti-base governors have led the local government.
Takaichi, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s president who has maintained relatively high popularity since taking office last October, regards the gubernatorial election as a “test” of her administration’s strength ahead of simultaneous local election next spring.
Other than the ruling bloc of the LDP and its junior coalition partner, the Japan Innovation Party, Koja is backed by the Democratic Party for the People, the ultraconservative Sanseito party and the Komeito party, the LDP’s former longtime ally.
Without an official party endorsement, Tamaki is supported by the anti-relocation All Okinawa group formed by left-leaning forces including the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and the Japanese Communist Party.
In a development that could consolidate conservative votes in Koja’s favor, former House of Representatives member Mikio Shimoji decided not to join the race after discussions with the LDP.
Tokyo and Washington maintain the current relocation plan is the “only solution” that ensures both deterrence under the bilateral security alliance and the removal of the dangers posed by the current base.
But many Okinawans have long demanded that the base be moved out of the prefecture, with over 70 percent voting against the plan to transfer it to Henoko in a local referendum in February 2019.
Okinawa is located near potential geopolitical flashpoints such as Taiwan, which has come under growing military pressure from China that sees the self-ruled democratic island as part of its territory.
AloJapan.com