Ruling Parties Decide to Back Sakima in Okinawa Governor Race

August 22, 2018

Tokyo- Japan's ruling parties separately decided Tuesday to endorse Atsushi Sakima, former mayor of Ginowan in Okinawa Prefecture, in the southern prefecture's closely watched Sept. 30 gubernatorial election.

"We place a priority on every election," Toshihiro Nikai, secretary-general of the Liberal Democratic Party, told a press conference. "We'll fight hard."

Sakima, 54, has a "strong capacity to do administrative work," Yoshihisa Inoue, Nikai's counterpart at Komeito, the LDP's junior coalition partner, told reporters. "We offer full support for him."

In the governorship race, the so-called All Okinawa camp opposing a planned U.S. base relocation within Okinawa under a Japan-U.S. agreement is seeking to field Denny Tamaki, 58, currently a House of Representatives lawmaker of the opposition Liberal Party. The relocation plan calls for constructing a new base in the Henoko coastal area in Nago to take over the functions of the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma air station in a densely populated area of Ginowan.

During a meeting in Tokyo on Tuesday, party leader Ichiro Ozawa suggested to Tamaki that he carefully consider running in the Okinawa poll, while consulting with his family. Tamaki was also urged to find a candidate to be his successor as a Lower House member.

"I'm now looking at whether I can really run," Tamaki told reporters following the meeting. "I'm carefully weighing up both sides." Jiji Press