Candidates Boost Campaigning a Week ahead of Okinawa Gov. Election

September 24, 2018

Naha, Okinawa Pref.- Two key candidates beefed up their campaigning on Sunday, a week ahead of the closely watched gubernatorial election in Okinawa Prefecture, southern Japan, in which the planned relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma air station within the prefecture is a major issue.

One of the two major candidates in the governor race is Atsushi Sakima, former mayor of the city of Ginowan in Okinawa, who is supported mainly by the country's ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its Komeito ally.

The other is Denny Tamaki, a former member of the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the country's parliament, who opposes the government's plan to transfer the Futenma base in Ginowan to the Henoko coastal area in Nago, another Okinawa city.

Shinjiro Koizumi, chief deputy secretary-general of the LDP, visited the Okinawa capital of Naha, to rally support for Sakima.

"They (the Tamaki side) are serious, so we also need to shift into higher gear," Koizumi told voters in a stump speech.

Sakima, standing side by side with Koizumi, vowed to revise the Japan-U.S. status of forces agreement, implement measures to increase incomes of local people and establish a professional baseball team in Okinawa.

Meanwhile, Tamaki reiterated his opposition to the Futenma base relocation at a kick-off event for a Ginowan mayoral election candidate, who also objects to the base transfer to Henoko.

The Okinawa gubernatorial election, set for Sept. 30, has two other candidates--former Naha municipal assembly member Hatsumi Toguchi and former company employee Shun Kaneshima.

The election was initially slated for November, but was moved up after Okinawa Governor Takeshi Onaga died of cancer in August. Jiji Press