A government-backed candidate has won Okinawa’s gubernatorial election with 59% of the vote, ending 12 years of leadership that resisted Tokyo’s military expansion across the strategically vital islands facing China and Taiwan.
Genta Koja’s victory could weaken opposition to relocating U.S. Marines from Futenma to Henoko and make it easier for Japan to expand military access to civilian airports and ports.
Okinawa sits along the First Island Chain, a strategically important arc between Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines.
The western island of Yonaguni lies only around 110 km from Taiwan.
Japan is simultaneously undertaking its largest military build-up since World War II.
110 KM FROM TAIWAN
Okinawa has long carried a disproportionate share of the U.S. military presence in Japan.
Previous governors fought Tokyo over base construction and expansion.
Koja’s victory changes that political relationship just as tensions with China make the islands increasingly important to Japanese and American defence planning.
The election was also fought on domestic issues, particularly rising prices.
Still, after 12 years of resistance from Okinawa’s governors, Tokyo now has a potentially much more cooperative administration sitting on one of the most strategically important pieces of territory in Asia.
And Taiwan is only 110 km away.
Sources
Reuters: Okinawa election may give Tokyo freer hand on military build-up
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