LDP's Koja wins Okinawa governor race, unblocking US base relocation — SkimNews
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- Genta Koja defeated two-term incumbent Denny Tamaki in Okinawa's gubernatorial election, winning 59% of the vote on Sunday and becoming the youngest governor since the prefecture's 1972 reversion from US rule
- Koja was backed by PM Sanae Takaichi's Liberal Democratic Party, beating Tamaki who has long pushed to move a major US military base out of Okinawa
- Koja's election could end Okinawa's legal efforts to block the relocation of US Marines from Futenma air base to a new facility at Henoko, according to University of the Ryukyus professor emeritus Masaaki Gabe
- Gabe said Koja could also approve designating civilian airports and ports for military use, 'opening wholly civilian facilities to military use'
- Takaichi is preparing a new national security strategy this year expected to accelerate Japan's biggest military build-up since World War II, citing the need to deter China's territorial ambitions
- Okinawa sits within the 'first island chain' constraining China's access to the western Pacific, with Yonaguni Island lying just 110km east of Taiwan, where Beijing has stepped up military activity
Why it matters: The Futenma-to-Henoko base relocation has been legally blocked by Tamaki's administration for years; Koja's win removes the key local obstacle to a realignment Japan and Washington have pursued since the 1990s. Combined with Takaichi's pending national security strategy and her stated willingness to treat a Taiwan contingency as a Japanese security threat, the vote effectively hands Tokyo both the legal clearance and political cover to convert Okinawa's civilian infrastructure into forward military assets facing China.
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