NAGO, Okinawa--An independent who opposes a plan to move the functions of the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station in Ginowan to Nago, both in Okinawa Prefecture, won the Nago mayoral election Sunday, making the plan highly unlikely to be realized.
Susumu Inamine, 64, former head of the city board of education, beat incumbent Yoshikazu Shimabukuro, 63.
Inamine ran as an independent and was backed by the Democratic Party of Japan, Japanese Communist Party, Social Democratic Party and People's New Party. Shima-bukuro, also an independent, was backed by the Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito.
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has made it clear he will take the election result into account when he makes a decision on the Futenma issue. With Inamine's victory, it likely will become extremely difficult to implement the 2006 Japan-U.S. agreement to relocate Futenma to the Henoko district of the city. The result also is likely to affect the overall realignment plan for U.S. forces in Japan.
"I promised you I wouldn't allow a base in Henoko's waters," Inamine said after learning of the election's outcome. "I'll keep my word".
During the campaign, Inamine pledged to seek a relocation site outside the prefecture, and possibly outside the country.
"Passing it around within Okinawa Prefecture would go against the trend of scaling down and integrating bases, so it shouldn't happen," he said.
Shimabukuro did not tackle the issue head-on as he felt the issue had been settled in the past three mayoral elections, all of which were won by candidates who supported the plan. Instead, Shimabukuro campaigned on measures aimed at stimulating the regional economy, which apparently failed to gain enough support among voters.
Voter turnout was 76.96 percent, up from 74.98 percent in the previous poll in 2006.
The Yomiuri Shimbun
