U.S. Reacts Calmly to Anti-Base Candidate’s Okinawa Election Win

October 1, 2018

Washington- A U.S. Department of State official on Sunday reacted calmly to the victory of a candidate opposing the planned relocation of a key U.S. military base within Okinawa Prefecture in the day's gubernatorial election in the southernmost Japan prefecture.

The U.S. government deeply respects the contributions Okinawa has made to the U.S.-Japan alliance, the official said, while congratulating Denny Tamaki, a former member of the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of Japan's parliament, on his winning the election.

In the poll, Tamaki beat a candidate backed by Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its Komeito ally, and two other candidates.

In the prefecture, candidates backed by the ruling bloc won the mayoral elections in the city of Nago in February and the city of Okinawa in April, leading some U.S. critics to think that the "All Okinawa" campaign against the base relocation, led by the late former Okinawa Governor Takeshi Onaga, is starting to hit a snag.

Under the plan agreed between the Japanese and U.S. governments, the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma air station in Ginowan, Okinawa, is set to be relocated to the Henoko coastal district in Nago, another city in the prefecture.

While responding calmly to Tamaki's victory, the U.S. government is carefully watching whether the anti-base campaign in Okinawa will regain steam to affect the new base construction work, analysts said.

William Brooks, adjunct professor for Japan studies at Johns Hopkins University, said that Tamaki's victory "would not change the equation in Okinawa to any extent because he would have no more tools other than protests to carry on Onaga's legacy."

It appears difficult for the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump to drastically review its East Asia strategy amid uncertainties over whether North Korea would really move for its denuclearization.

Apparently keeping such a view in mind, Brooks said that "nothing is going to dissuade Washington and Tokyo from completing" the base relocation. Jiji Press