Genta Koja, 42, won Sunday’s governor election in Okinawa, NHK reported, beating incumbent Denny Tamaki in a race that turned largely on where the US Marines’ Futenma air station should go. Six candidates ran, but attention centered on those two.
Koja, a former deputy mayor of Naha, had the backing of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s Liberal Democratic Party, the Japan Innovation Party, the Democratic Party for the People and the ultraconservative Sanseito. Tamaki was supported by the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, the Japanese Communist Party and the Social Democratic Party. Japanese media framed the contest as one between conservative and reformist forces, according to Xinhua.
The Futenma question
The two men split on the base. The Futenma relocation plan rests on a 1996 agreement between Tokyo and Washington. It would move the air station from Ginowan City to the coastal Henoko area of Nago City, still within Okinawa, and requires land reclamation and a new runway.
The Mainichi Shimbun reported that Tamaki opposed the transfer. He also urged the government not to deploy more Self-Defense Forces on the southwestern islands and opposed joint Japan-US military exercises. Koja backed the existing relocation plan and called for closer coordination with the central government.
Many Okinawans want the base gone from the prefecture altogether. Residents have long dealt with aircraft noise, safety incidents and crime linked to the American presence. Takeshi Onaga, elected governor in 2014, opposed the relocation openly, and Tamaki kept that position.
What changes
Japanese media said Koja’s win moves the prefectural government, for the first time in 12 years, to supporting the Henoko relocation. They said it also lets Tokyo push ahead with the project and give Okinawa a larger role in expanding military deployments on the southwestern islands. Xinhua put the government’s stated reason, “responding to challenges,” in quotation marks.
Koja is the ninth governor of Okinawa since the islands reverted to Japan in 1972, and the first born after the US occupation of the Ryukyu Islands.
