Tamaki Declares Bid for Okinawa Governor

August 30, 2018

Naha, Okinawa Pref.- Japanese opposition lawmaker Denny Tamaki on Wednesday announced his candidacy for next month's gubernatorial race in Okinawa Prefecture.

Tamaki, 58, secretary-general of the Liberal Party, is expected to compete against former Ginowan Mayor Atsushi Sakima, 54, in the Sept. 30 election.

Sakima, backed by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition ally, Komeito, has already declared his bid to be governor of the southern Japan prefecture.

Major opposition parties support Tamaki, but opposition Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Innovation Party) plans to recommend Sakima.

The election will select the successor of the late Governor Takeshi Onaga, who died of cancer on Aug. 8.

The focus of the election will be the planned relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma air station in the Okinawa city of Ginowan to the Henoko coastal area in Nago, another city in the prefecture.

Onaga, who opposed building any new military base in the prefecture, is said to have left voice data naming Tamaki as one of his preferred successor candidates. The so-called All Okinawa camp opposing the air base relocation plan has asked Tamaki to run in the election.

"I'll accomplish Onaga's goal of blocking the construction of a new base in Henoko," Tamaki told a press conference in Naha, the capital of Okinawa. "I'll urge the central government to quickly close and return the Futenma base."

Tamaki expressed full support for the prefectural government's plan to revoke its permission as early as Friday for land reclamation in Henoko for the Futenma base relocation.

He also pledged to urge the central government to revise the Japan-U.S. status of forces agreement, which governs U.S. troops stationed in Japan.

Tamaki, a former television personality and assembly member of the city of Okinawa, is now serving his fourth term as a member of the House of Representatives after being first elected to the lower chamber of parliament in 2009. Jiji Press