Incumbent Atsushi Sakima, backed by the government and the ruling parties, was re-elected Sunday as mayor of Ginowan, Okinawa Prefecture, home to the U.S. Marine Corps’ Futenma Air Station.
Sakima, 51, was seeking a second term. He defeated rookie candidate Keiichiro Shimura, 63, a former prefectural government official who was backed by Okinawa Gov. Takeshi Onaga and his allies.
The government and the ruling parties intend to proceed with a plan to relocate the Futenma base to the Henoko district of Nago, also in the prefecture. Onaga and his allies oppose the relocation plan.
The mayoral election thus took the shape of a proxy battle over the relocation plan.
With Sakima’s victory, the government and the ruling parties are ready to steadily proceed with the relocation plan, which has developed into a legal battle between the government and the prefecture following Onaga’s cancellation of approval for land reclamation work off the Henoko district in October last year. The confrontation between the two sides is expected to continue.
Opponents of the relocation plan in Okinawa won a series of major elections, including the Nago mayoral election in January 2014 and the gubernatorial race in November 2014. The government and the ruling parties prevented back-to-back losses by fully supporting Sakima this time.
During the campaign, Sakima stressed that the Futenma base should be closed and returned to Japan as soon as possible. He called for the elimination of damage caused by the base, but refrained from saying where the base should be relocated, apparently out of consideration for local opinion against the planned move to the Henoko district. This stance appears to have been accepted by many voters, observers said.
Senior members of the Liberal Democratic Party and its ruling coalition partner Komeito visited Ginowan a number of times to seek support from local companies and industry groups. There were fears that a win by the Onaga-backed Shimura could foster momentum against, and possibly seriously affect, the relocation plan.
Sakima won 27,668 votes and Shimura won 21,811 votes in Sunday’s election. Voter turnout was 68.72 percent, higher than the 63.9 percent in the previous election. The number of eligible voters stood at 72,526 on the day.Speech(The Yomiuri Shimbun)
Link: http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0002705083
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