Japanese PM-backed candidate wins Okinawa gubernatorial election

Genta Koja has defeated two-term incumbent Denny Tamaki in the race for governor of Japan’s southernmost prefecture, potentially ending more than a decade of opposition to a United States military build-up in the region.

He won 59 percent of the vote in Sunday’s election, officials announced on Monday.

Koja, a former deputy mayor of Okinawa’s capital, Naha, was backed by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s Liberal Democratic Party. He beat Tamaki, 66, who has long pushed for a major US military base to be moved out of Okinawa.

The 42-year-old will become the youngest Okinawa governor since the prefecture was returned to Japan from US rule in 1972. He will also become its first governor born after the reversion.

His election could end Okinawa’s legal efforts to block the relocation of US Marines from the Futenma air base to a new facility at Henoko on the prefecture’s main island, according to Masaaki Gabe, a professor emeritus at the University of the Ryukyus.

Gabe also said it may make it easier to expand military access to airports and ports.

“Koja could reasonably be expected to approve their designation, opening wholly civilian facilities to military use,” Gabe added.

Koja’s victory comes as Takaichi prepares to unveil a new national security strategy this year that is expected to accelerate Japan’s biggest military build-up since World War II.

Her administration said increased defence spending was necessary to deter China from using military force to advance its territorial ambitions in East Asia.

Okinawa forms part of what military planners call the first island chain, a string of territory stretching from Japan through the Philippines that constrains China’s access to the western Pacific.

Yonaguni Island, Japan’s westernmost territory, lies 110km (68 miles) east of Taiwan. Beijing claims Taiwan as its own territory and has stepped up military activity around the democratically governed island.

Tensions between Tokyo and Beijing have risen since Takaichi said last year that a Chinese attack on Taiwan could also threaten Japan and trigger a military response by Tokyo.