TOKYO, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) — Japan’s Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki stated Monday his reelection underscored native opposition to the Japanese authorities’s contentious plans to relocate a U.S. navy base inside the island.
“It is an undeniable fact that I was elected by the people who oppose the relocation plan, meaning the Okinawans true feelings have not changed,” Tamaki informed native media a day after securing his second four-year time period as governor of Okinawa.
Tamaki, 62, whose election marketing campaign was largely based mostly on his opposition to the federal government’s plan to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma inside Okinawa, secured greater than half the votes in Sunday’s gubernatorial election.
Opposition-backed Tamaki beat former Ginowan Mayor Atsushi Sakima who was supported by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party-led coalition and was a proponent of relocating the U.S. base inside the island, in addition to former lawmaker Mikio Shimoji.
Tamaki stated the folks of Okinawa reelected him to precise their very own opposition to the plans to relocate the U.S. base inside Okinawa, including that Okinawans wish to have their general U.S. base-hosting burdens lifted.
Along with saying he would go to Tokyo in particular person to induce the central authorities to desert its plan to relocate the bottom, he additionally advised he could make use of different means together with dialogue with the worldwide group.
The native Okinawa and central governments have long-been at odds over the relocation of the bottom, with native Okinawans feeling their occupation by U.S. forces has continued lengthy past 1972 when Okinawa was formally reverted to Japanese management.
Okinawa hosts nearly all of U.S. bases in Japan, but the tiny subtropical island accounts for a tiny fraction of Japan’s land mass.
The disproportionate variety of U.S. bases hosted by Okinawa has been a protracted supply of rigidity for its native residents.
They have needed to endure a near-constant string of U.S. military-linked accidents and mishaps involving plane, firing drills and air pollution, in addition to some heinous crimes involving U.S. navy and military-linked personnel, as extensively reported.
LDP election chief Hiroshi Moriyama, nevertheless, informed reporters on Monday that Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida stated his authorities nonetheless plans to maneuver forward with the relocation plan.
The contentious plan relies on a pact made between the United States and Japan in 1996, with the coastal area of Henoko being chosen because the alternative web site in 1999.
Okinawans have successfully voted for the bottom to be relocated exterior the island or Japan altogether within the newest gubernatorial election in addition to in comparable elections held in 2014, 2018 and a referendum in 2019.