Japanese PM-backed candidate wins Okinawa gubernatorial election — SkimNews
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- Genta Koja defeated two-term incumbent Denny Tamaki in Okinawa's gubernatorial election with 59% of the vote in Sunday's contest, officials announced Monday.
- Koja, a former deputy mayor of Naha, was backed by PM Sanae Takaichi's Liberal Democratic Party; Tamaki, 66, had long pushed to move a major US military base out of Okinawa.
- The 42-year-old Koja becomes the youngest Okinawa governor since the prefecture was returned to Japan from US rule in 1972, and its first governor born after the reversion.
- Koja's victory could end Okinawa's legal efforts to block the relocation of US Marines from Futenma air base to Henoko, according to University of the Ryukyus professor emeritus Masaaki Gabe.
- Gabe said Koja may approve military designation of airports and ports, 'opening wholly civilian facilities to military use.'
- The election comes as Takaichi prepares a new national security strategy this year, expected to accelerate Japan's biggest military build-up since World War II to deter China.
- Okinawa sits within the first island chain constraining China's access to the western Pacific, with Japan's westernmost Yonaguni Island lying 110km east of Taiwan.
Why it matters: The Okinawa governorship flip from Tamaki to Koja removes the prefecture's main institutional obstacle to the Futenma-to-Henoko base relocation and broader US-Japan military infrastructure expansion. With PM Takaichi unveiling a new national security strategy this year and citing China as the driver, the vote gives Tokyo a smoother path to convert civilian airports and ports to military use as Taiwan-strait tensions intensify.
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