LDP-Backed Koja Certain to Win Okinawa Governor Poll

Naha, Okinawa Pref., Sept. 13 (Jiji Press)–Genta Koja is certain to win Sunday’s gubernatorial election in Japan’s southernmost prefecture of Okinawa, bringing the Liberal Democratic Party back into power in the prefectural government for the first time in 12 years. The 42-year-old former vice mayor of Naha, Okinawa’s capital, was up against 66-year-old Denny Tamaki, who had sought a third term as Okinawa governor, and four other candidates. Koja takes a position accepting the relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps’ Futenma air base in Ginowan to the Henoko district in Nago, another city in Okinawa. Okinawa’s prefectural politics, long marked by fierce opposition between conservative and reformist forces mainly over the relocation issue, may be at a turning point. Koja is the first governor of Okinawa to have been born after 1972, when the prefecture was returned to Japan. He will be the youngest elected governor of the prefecture. “The election was a question of whether to continue the current prefectural administration or to bring about a renewal,” Koja told reporters in Naha on Sunday night. While respecting Tamaki’s administration, “I want to move Okinawa forward,” he said. Speaking to his supporters in Naha, Tamaki said that “the base cannot be built in Henoko.” “I was not wrong to argue on behalf of the people of Okinawa” against the planned relocation, he added. The result of the Okinawa election is likely to give a boost to Prime Minister and LDP President Sanae Takaichi’s administration, which had characterized the gubernatorial election as a “barometer” for her administration. “We have been able to further stabilize our political base,” LDP Secretary-General Shunichi Suzuki told reporters at the LDP headquarters in Tokyo. Until now, the base relocation issue had been the central point of contention in Okinawa gubernatorial elections. However, as construction off the coast of Henoko has progressed and the prefectural government has lost every legal battle against the national government, there had been speculation that public interest among prefectural residents about the base transfer issue had waned. The All Okinawa camp, which mainly brings together progressive forces, had also suffered consecutive defeats in recent local elections. Koja was endorsed by the LDP, which is the ruling party in national politics, and its junior coalition partner, the Japan Innovation Party, as well as the Democratic Party for the People, Sanseito, the Conservative Party of Japan and Komeito’s Okinawa prefectural chapter. During the campaign, Koja advocated economic revitalization measures and emphasized his connections with the national government and the ruling coalition. LDP policy chief Takayuki Kobayashi and JIP leader Hirofumi Yoshimura visited Okinawa to support Koja. Meanwhile, Tamaki toned down his opposition to the base relocation during the campaign, while highlighting his achievements during his two terms of office, including robust tourism in the prefecture, but failed to defeat Koja. Tamaki was backed by the All Okinawa camp, also receiving support from the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, the Japanese Communist Party and the Social Democratic Party. As of 7:30 p.m., voter turnout stood at 29.65 pct, up 3.58 percentage points from the previous gubernatorial election, held in 2022. The four other candidates were Shun Kaneshima, a 48-year-old company president, Masahiro Sueyoshi, a 73-year-old chairman of a medical corporation, Takashi Higa, a 49-year-old company representative, and Chosuke Yara, a 74-year-old head of a political organization. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]