Japan Press Weekly

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2016 January 20 - 26 [POLITICS]

Abe-backed candidate wins mayoral election by tricking Ginowan voters

In the latest Ginowan City mayoral election, the incumbent candidate, Sakima Atsushi, who received the full support from the ruling Liberal Democratic and Komei parties, won a victory by hardly touching on the relocation of the U.S. Futenma base to Henoko during the election campaign. It is obvious that his victory does not automatically mean that Okinawans accepted the construction of a new base in Henoko.

To sidestep the Henoko base issue in the election was a strategy drafted by the ruling bloc led by Prime Minister Abe Shinzo.

In the November 2014 Okinawa gubernatorial election, whether to approve the new base construction was the major issue. In this election, anti-base candidate Onaga Takashi who promised to block the Henoko base project beat the LDP/Komei-backed incumbent, Nakaima Hirokazu, by a large margin of 100,000 votes. In Ginowan City, Onaga obtained about 3,000 more votes than his rival Nakaima.

It is apparent that the Abe administration and the ruling coalition learned from the gubernatorial election and decided to avoid making the Henoko base issue a central issue in the Ginowan mayoral election.

During the election campaign, Sakima kept silent about the issue of relocating the Futenma base to Henoko.

Many media exit polls showed that 30% of voters opposing the Henoko base construction voted for Sakima. Meanwhile, a base opponent, Shimura Keiichiro who placed the cancellation of the Henoko base project at the core of his election promises won 44.08% of the votes cast. The two candidates were in a dead heat.

If the Abe government pushes forward with the new base project under the banner of Sakima’s victory which was obtained by employing dishonest measures, it will inevitably face fierce resistance from Okinawans.