Japan Press Weekly

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2022 January 19 - 25 [POLITICS]

Anti-base All-Okinawa candidate puts up good fight but fails to win Nago mayoral race

In the mayoral election held in Okinawa’s Nago City on January 23, anti-base All-Okinawa candidate Kishimoto Yohei, who is in his 40s, put up a good fight with support from the Japanese Communist Party, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, the Social Democratic Party, the Reiwa Shinsengumi party, the Okinawa Social Mass Party, and a local political group. Despite obtaining 42.51% of total vote cast, he was defeated by incumbent candidate Toguchi Taketoyo, 60, who was backed by the ruling Liberal Democratic and Komei parties.

The final voter turnout stood at 68.32%, down by 8.6 percentage points from the previous election, hitting a record low.

Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Koike Akira on January 24 at a press conference in the Diet building commented on the election results. Describing Kishimoto’s defeat as unfortunate, he stressed, “It is unacceptable for Tokyo to use the election results to claim that Nago citizens accepted the project to construct a new U.S. base in Henoko.”

Koike referred to the NHK exit poll showing that while 65% of respondents opposed the Henoko base project, 30% of the 65% voted for Toguchi. He said, “This indicates that Nago citizens have mixed feelings. I suppose many voters elected the incumbent with the utmost reluctance.”

In addition, Koike pointed out that as evidenced in former Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide’s remark about the mayoral election in which he attempted to remove the Henoko base project from election issues, the incumbent camp during the election campaign kept quiet about the project and thus the incumbent candidate’s victory doesn’t mean local approval for the new U.S. base construction in Henoko.

Koike noted that Governor Tamaki Denny in his comment on the election outcome expressed his unwavering opposition to the Henoko base project, and said, “Joining hands with the governor, the JCP will make all-out efforts for the development of the All-Okinawa forces.”