Anti-U.S. Governor Loses Reelection Bid on Okinawa
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.
