This is a big loss for China who has long supported the outgoing governor Denny Tamaki and a huge win for Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi:
Genta Koja, the candidate backed by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s ruling coalition, is set to win Sunday’s Okinawa gubernatorial election, defeating incumbent Denny Tamaki, Kyodo News projections showed.
A win for Koja would provide a tailwind for Takaichi’s government as it pushes for the contentious relocation of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Ginowan to the coastal Henoko area in Nago within the southern island prefecture.
Koja, 42, a former deputy Naha mayor and central government bureaucrat, will be the first Okinawa governor in 12 years to accept the relocation plan.
He is set to be the first Okinawa governor born after 1972, the year when the island was returned to Japan, having been under U.S. control since Japan’s defeat in World War II in 1945.
You can read more at the link, but Koja’s election win shows how popular Takaichi is in Japan that even Okinawa now strongly backs her. This is significant because China has been trying to foment popular dissent against the relocation of U.S. Marines on Okinawa. With the Tamaki gone the base relocation plan will now face no political opposition on Okinawa.
What else will not face political opposition is the deployment of Japanese Self Defense Forces to the islands southwest of Okinawa that the Governor is also responsible for. These forces were deployed to the islands in response to increasing Chinese and even Russian naval, air, and missile activities around the islands.
Once again, Chinese threats against Japan are being answered by its voters choosing stronger security over appeasement. You would think China would have learned by now that the more belligerent it is toward Japan, the more it will choose leaders who are strong on security. However, President Emperor Xi and his underlings just cannot help themselves because anti-Japanese sentiment is a core value of the CCP since it is an effective way to distract their internal population from domestic issues when needed.
It is hard to believe it has been 25 years since the 9-11 terrorist attacks. What was everyone doing that day when the attacks happened?:
Here is what is being section what Korea will do with any possible deployment to the Middle East:
Local news reports have speculated on the potential list of military assets for deployment, including the P-8A maritime patrol aircraft, a logistics support ship and explosive ordnance disposal teams — mainly non-combat assets.
However, the naval logistics support vessel has reportedly been ruled out as its operation would require dispatching more than 100 sailors.
The assessment team likely visited the Al Dhafra Air Base in Abu Dhabi, home to a primary U.S. military installation in the UAE, to check operational conditions for the potential P-8A deployment.
Sending an assessment team to a candidate deployment site is part of the required procedures under the defense ministry’s directives on overseas military deployment. Upon return, the team is obliged to report the result of the mission to the National Security Council.
The defense ministry, however, has stressed that the team’s dispatch does not mean the deployment will follow, saying that its purpose was strictly to assess the security environment and safety conditions near the strait.
You can read more at the link, but I still think counter-drone and missile defense in support of UAE is play here.
The ruling party and the Korean public do not like Trump which makes it politically difficult to do this deployment in support of Trump. Instead frame it as a request for defensive assistance from the UAE, a long time strategic partner of the ROK. President Lee should not even bring Trump’s name up when discussing this deployment in order to sell it to the Korean public.
If anything I would hope these threats would make the ROK government more determined to deploy assets to the Middle East to show they are not easily intimidated by the Thugs of Tehran:
Complicating Seoul’s deliberations on the issue is Iran’s stern warning against any potential military dispatch to the strait.
“Any other country maintaining a military presence or participating in operations in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz can only be regarded as directly supporting the perpetrators of the aggression, and it will lead to serious consequences,” Esmaeil Baqaei, spokesperson for Iran’s foreign ministry, wrote on X on Monday.
His social media post also carried a photo with a Korean-language message: “A dangerous choice comes with consequences.”
You can read more at the link, but I still think deploying anti-drone and missile defense forces to help defend the UAE is a strategy the ROK should pursue. As the Iranian regime becomes more economically desperate they are going to lash out and attack regional energy infrastructure which South Korea can help UAE defend against.
