NAHA –
Genta Koja, a former deputy mayor of Naha who accepts the relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma to Henoko in Nago, received the Okinawa gubernatorial election on September 13, defeating incumbent Governor Denny Tamaki and bringing an finish to 12 years of prefectural administrations dedicated to blocking the mission.
Koja, 42, was making his first bid for governor and was backed by the Liberal Democratic Party, Nippon Ishin no Kai, the Democratic Party for the People, Sanseito and the Conservative Party, with the Okinawa chapter of Komeito additionally supporting his candidacy.
Tamaki, 66, was in search of one other time period with the backing of the “All Okinawa” coalition, which has made opposition to the Henoko relocation plan one of many defining problems with Okinawan politics for greater than a decade.
Koja’s victory represents probably the most important political shift within the prefecture since Takeshi Onaga received the governorship in 2014 on a platform of stopping building of the substitute facility at Henoko.
Onaga, a former Naha mayor with conservative political roots, introduced collectively opposition events, civic teams, labor organizations and components of Okinawa’s enterprise group below the All Okinawa banner. The coalition sought to transcend the standard conservative-progressive divide by specializing in opposition to concentrating the burden of U.S. navy bases in Okinawa and, particularly, the Henoko mission.
After Onaga died in workplace in 2018, Tamaki, then a member of the House of Representatives, ran as his successor and defeated the government-backed candidate by greater than 80,000 votes. Tamaki received 396,632 votes, then the very best whole ever recorded in an Okinawa gubernatorial election.
He was re-elected in September 2022, once more defeating a candidate backed by the ruling events and reinforcing the prefectural authorities’s opposition to Henoko.
The dispute dates again a lot additional.
Japan and the United States agreed in 1996 to return the Futenma air station, which is positioned within the densely populated metropolis of Ginowan, following years of concern over accidents, plane noise and the dangers posed by a significant navy set up surrounded by residential neighborhoods and faculties.
The Japanese authorities finally settled on establishing a substitute facility within the Henoko space of Nago, incorporating runways extending into the coastal waters off Camp Schwab.
Successive governments in Tokyo have argued that transferring Futenma to Henoko is the one sensible approach to obtain the air station’s return whereas sustaining the deterrence supplied by the U.S. Marine Corps in Okinawa.
Opponents argue that the plan merely strikes the burden from one a part of Okinawa to a different and successfully creates a brand new navy facility that would stay in use for many years.
Resistance to Henoko grew to become probably the most highly effective organizing forces in Okinawan politics. In a February 2019 prefectural referendum, greater than 70% of voters who participated opposed landfill work related to the mission.
The outcome, nevertheless, didn’t cease building.
Years of confrontation adopted between the prefectural authorities and the central authorities over landfill approval, design adjustments and work wanted to stabilize gentle floor found beneath components of Oura Bay.
Tokyo in the end used authorized and administrative procedures to push the mission ahead regardless of Okinawa’s objections. Construction on the Oura Bay aspect moved forward from January 2024, adopted by ground-improvement work later that yr.
Further landfill work started in one other part of Oura Bay in June 2026, and Japan and the United States reached settlement in July on the remaining landfill and ground-improvement work required for the mission, permitting all levels of building to proceed.
That altering actuality shaped an vital backdrop to the September election.
Koja didn’t argue that Henoko was essentially the perfect answer. During the marketing campaign, he stated he didn’t regard the positioning as the one conceivable reply to the Futenma drawback however accepted the relocation as a result of building had superior and makes an attempt to halt it via litigation had largely failed.
Starting a seek for a wholly totally different website at this stage, he argued, would additional delay the return of Futenma.
Koja stated he would as a substitute press the central authorities to make clear when Futenma can be returned and search measures to scale back the burden on surrounding communities whereas the relocation stays incomplete, together with transferring navy coaching elsewhere.
That place marks a elementary change from the method taken by the Onaga and Tamaki administrations.
For 12 years, Okinawa’s governor served as probably the most outstanding institutional opponent of the Henoko mission, difficult Tokyo via administrative selections, lawsuits and public campaigning.
Koja’s election removes that resistance from the governor’s workplace.
The central authorities is subsequently prone to discover it simpler to coordinate with the prefecture as building proceeds, though the election doesn’t eradicate opposition amongst residents, civic teams or political events.
Nor does it imply that disputes over the U.S. navy presence in Okinawa have disappeared. The prefecture hosts a disproportionately massive share of U.S. navy amenities in Japan, and questions involving plane noise, accidents, crimes involving navy personnel, coaching, land returns and the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement stay main political points.
The election additionally can’t merely be learn as a referendum approving Henoko.
Economic issues performed a central function within the marketing campaign and seem to have weakened the standard dominance of the bottom problem.
Pre-election polling confirmed that measures to handle rising costs had been crucial coverage concern for a lot of voters, with bases and safety rating behind financial points. Exit polling additionally indicated that about three in 10 individuals who had voted for Tamaki within the earlier gubernatorial election switched to Koja this time.
Koja intentionally positioned the financial system on the middle of his marketing campaign, portraying the Tamaki administration as certainly one of stagnation and arguing that Okinawa had failed to shut its revenue hole with the remainder of Japan.
His most eye-catching financial pledge was to double prefectural revenue inside 10 years.
Koja proposed what he referred to as a brand new “5K economy,” centered on tourism, well being, the setting, marine industries and entrepreneurship, whereas additionally calling for greater productiveness and larger added worth amongst small and midsize companies.
He has additionally set a objective of attracting 15 million vacationers whereas rising spending per customer quite than relying solely on development in customer numbers. On transport, he has proposed measures starting from bettering roads and bus providers to inspecting longer-term rail hyperlinks working north-south via Okinawa.
The outcome additionally represents a significant setback for All Okinawa.
The coalition remodeled Okinawan politics after 2014 and for years dominated prefecture-wide elections. But the alliance had progressively weakened as conservative enterprise figures and different early supporters left, whereas government-backed candidates more and more received municipal elections.
The September 13 defeat raises questions over whether or not opposition to Henoko alone can nonetheless present the broad political coalition that sustained the motion for greater than a decade.
Tamaki acknowledged the outcome on election evening, thanking supporters and saying he would take the result critically. He additionally expressed concern in regards to the positions of a few of the events supporting Koja on points together with constitutional revision and strengthening Japan’s deterrence capabilities.
For Koja, the quick problem might be balancing his numerous political help with Okinawan public opinion.
His victory offers the central authorities a governor keen to just accept the Henoko mission, however deep skepticism towards the U.S. navy footprint stays embedded in Okinawan politics. Even voters who supported Koja for financial causes don’t essentially help each facet of Tokyo’s safety coverage or the development mission.
The bodily relocation itself additionally stays years away.
The Defense Ministry continues to explain Henoko as the one answer to eliminating the risks posed by Futenma and says building is advancing, however no particular date has but been introduced for the air station’s return. The authorities has stated the timing will depend upon completion of the substitute facility, motion of navy items and success of different circumstances agreed with the United States.
The September election subsequently adjustments the politics of Henoko extra instantly than it adjustments circumstances on the bottom.
For Tokyo, Koja’s victory removes probably the most persistent sources of political and administrative resistance to a mission successive governments have pursued for many years.
For Okinawa, it marks the top of an period by which the governor’s workplace was carefully recognized with the marketing campaign to cease Henoko.
And for All Okinawa, the outcome poses a deeper query: whether or not the motion that reshaped the prefecture’s politics in 2014 can rebuild a broad coalition when voters are more and more weighing wages, costs, tourism, transport and financial alternative alongside the long-running dispute over U.S. bases.
Source: Kyodo