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.

Mainichi

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.

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Korean Person
Korean Person
1 month ago

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.

While and the Japanese right are celebrating Tamaki’s election loss, this is happening

She wrote that defense alliances with those nations could be phased out for narrower “ad hoc security partnerships without negative consequences.”

That phasing out would look like the removal of most Army and Marine Corps units in Asia, a significant cut to air and naval power, and shifting to a “clear non-intervention position on Taiwan.”

A downsizing of forces in Japan would see through the planned movement of the marine garrison in Okinawa to Guam.

“This plan could continue, though their presence in Guam should be temporary and by 2030 all 18,000 Marines in Okinawa should be returned to the United States,” she wrote.

https://www.guampdn.com/news/analyst-pull-troops-away-from-china-and-taiwan-toward-guam-to-reduce-chance-of-war/article_be4edcfc-fc4c-43d4-87de-674263c62c8c.html

In other words, MAGA are calling for the US to withdraw from Okinawa.

Which means Japan’s LDP spent all that resources to unseat a left leaning governor for nothing.

At the end of the day this is what Japan will get for its slavish support of the US.

For Koreans, we know full well that the US will withdraw the USFK and throw us under the bus if it suits them.

That is why we have taken a more pragmatic approach to regional relations and security, unlike the Japanese.

ChickenHead
ChickenHead
1 month ago

“For Koreans, we know full well that the US will withdraw the USFK and throw us under the bus if it suits them.”

That is why Korean leadership, both left and right, talk a lot but make sure throwing Korea under the bus never suits them.

setnaffa
setnaffa
1 month ago

Come on now, CCP!

Can’t you hire at least one troll who can summarize? These walls of wordsalad are just tiresome. And they apparently use expired sauces.

Don’t your trolls, bots, drones, and/or shills at least have access to ChatGPT to be able to add a TL;DR paragraph at the beginning?

Or are you secretly trying to make us think you bought them from Temu?

Last edited 1 month ago by setnaffa
Korean Person
Korean Person
1 month ago

Can’t you hire at least one troll who can summarize?

Translation 1

is poorly educated so he can’t read and understand the easily understandable passage.

Translation 2

is adhering to Article 1 of the Articles of Senaffarism™

Article 1
The only truth is the world that exists only in the world of Setnaffarism™. Everything else is not true, and should not be believed.

Meaning in the world of Setnaffarism the US Forces in Asia are staying in Asia forever when in reality the person that help vote into office wants to pull them out of Asia.

So to any mention of US Forces in Asia being pulled out is not true and should not be believed, when it fact their withdrawal is just around the corner.

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