Okinawa re-elects Tamaki, the governor opposed to US bases
In spite of the turmoil of recent months around Taiwan, with Okinawa prefecture in the front line, discontent over the concentration of US bases in the area of Japan continues to dominate among its inhabitants. Conservative candidate defeated.
Tokyo (AsiaNews) - Denny Tamaki has won again: the result of the local elections in Okinawa, held yesterday, rewards the incumbent governor who was reconfirmed with about 51% of the votes. Sakima Atsushi, the main rival supported by the parties of the conservative-led governing coalition (LDP and Komeito), stopped at 41%. The result reflects pre-election polls, which gave the opposition-backed governor the lead.
Much of Okinawa's politics is a function of the relationship with the central government, and today Tamaki is perhaps the country's most embattled governor with whom Tokyo has to deal. His grip on the electorate of Japan's most peripheral prefecture is largely due to his open opposition to the presence of US military bases, which not only occupy 5% of the territory of the whole of Okinawa but are also often a source of tension with the local population.
On the basis of this local discontent, an opposition movement has developed, which has found its political expression in Tamaki. Seventy per cent of all US bases in Japan are in Okinawa: too much, according to Tamaki and his supporters.
Tamaki had promised in 2018 to move the US air base in Futenma, currently located within the city of Ginowan. The Japanese and US governments proposed relocation to Henoko, a less densely populated area of the island, but Tamaki opposed this, demanding it be moved outside Okinawa. A legal tug-of-war between local and central government ensued, which has greatly agitated Okinawan politics in recent months.
Despite the turmoil in recent months around Taiwan, with the prefecture at the forefront, Okinawans still frown on the US bases. In fact, 55% oppose the relocation plan to Henoko according to polls. In his own victory message yesterday, Tamaki referred to these very voters, thanking them because their determination to 'never allow the construction of a new base has not wavered one iota'. 'The Japanese and US governments should take this election result seriously,' he added.
But the US bases was not the only issue in this election because the economy was also among the protagonists of this campaign. In fact, Okinawa, besides being the poorest prefecture in Japan, is also very dependent on tourism, a sector that suffered enormously during the pandemic. Tamaki is said to have devoted more attention to proposals for economic recovery in this election round, robbing the conservative candidate of one of the strong themes on which the LDP's election strategy is also based in Okinawa.
Contributing to the conservative candidate's defeat, however, could also be his ties with the Unification Church, on which public opinion in Japan turned the spotlight after Abe's murder last July. The relationship between the religious organisation and the LDP is one of the factors that led to the Kishida government's sharp decline in the polls, and it is likely that the same dynamic has been repeated in Okinawa.
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08/10/2022 15:49
