Okinawa governor-elect Koja wins record 400,000-plus votes

NAHA, Japan – Okinawa’s election board said Genta Koja, who won Sunday’s gubernatorial election against incumbent Denny Tamaki, received more than 400,000 votes, the highest number ever in the prefecture’s history.

It was the first time for a candidate in an Okinawa gubernatorial election to win over 400,000 votes, the board said. The previous record was 396,632 votes, secured by Tamaki in 2018.

Koja won the most votes in all municipalities in the prefecture except one village, according to the election board. Voter turnout was 61.57 percent, up 3.65 percentage points from the previous election in 2022.

A total of 347,171 people cast ballots in the early voting, accounting for nearly half of the 717,714 voters in the latest gubernatorial election.

Koja was supported by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and other conservative groups. Tamaki, who has served two four-year terms as governor, was backed by the All Okinawa group, which opposes relocating a controversial U.S. base within the prefecture.