Incumbent Certain to Win 3rd Term in Nago Mayoral Race

Nago, Okinawa Pref., Jan. 25 (Jiji Press)–Incumbent candidate Taketoyo Toguchi, supported by advocates of a controversial U.S. base relocation project, is certain to win Sunday’s mayoral election in Nago in the southernmost Japan prefecture of Okinawa. This will deal a major blow to the “All Okinawa” camp, which opposes the planned relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps’ Futenma air base in Ginowan, Okinawa, to the Henoko coastal area in Nago. The election was effectively a one-on-one battle between Toguchi, 64, who sought a third term, and former city assembly member Kumiko Onaga, 69. Toguchi was endorsed by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner, the Japan Innovation Party, as well as by the Democratic Party for the People and Komeito, while Onaga was backed by the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, the Japanese Communist Party and the Social Democratic Party. The All Okinawa camp supported Onaga. The mayoral election was held due to the expiration of the incumbent’s term. Since his first election in 2018, Toguchi has maintained a stance of not addressing the pros and cons of the relocation plan. During the latest election campaign, he advocated for regional development leveraging his good relationship with the central government. Toguchi said to reporters on Sunday night, “We will utilize every available financial resource to improve citizens’ lives.” Regarding the relocation issue, he did not go any further than saying, “It all comes down to protecting the living environment.” Meanwhile, Onaga asserted that she would work with Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki to block the relocation. She advocated for community development independent of the central government’s grants for the realignment of U.S. forces in Japan. The number of eligible voters on the election day was 50,889. The voter turnout rate was 60.75 pct, down 7.57 percentage points from the previous election, marking the lowest turnout on record. It was the eighth mayoral election in Nago in which the Henoko base relocation was questioned. The central government began land reclamation work for building a replacement facility in Henoko in 2018, but due to the time required for large-scale ground improvement work on the soft soil, the new facility is not expected to open for at least 10 years. The upcoming Okinawa gubernatorial election is also expected to be a battle between the All Okinawa forces and conservative forces such as the prefectural business community and the LDP. In the Nago mayoral election, the LDP maintained its conventional alliance with Komeito, unlike in the upcoming House of Representative election, in which the Centrist Reform Alliance, newly formed by the CDP and Komeito, will challenge the LDP-JIP ruling coalition. The other candidate, Katsuya Iha, a 67-year-old tutoring school manager who opposes the base relocation, struggled to gain votes. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]