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| Futenma Air Station (File Photo) |
By Mina Pollmann
The LDP is using its position as Japan’s governing party to make life difficult for Okinawa’s new anti-base governor.
While the world focuses its attention on the impact the hostage crisis in the Middle East will have on Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s attempts to prepare Japan for a more active security role in the world, nascent trouble is brewing much closer to the home islands. Ever since the anti-base candidate won the gubernatorial race in Okinawa, relations between the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)-controlled central government and the Ryukyu Islands have been contentious, to put it mildly. The LDP has reacted to the indigenous anti-base movement by slashing special funding for Okinawa, snubbing the newly elected governor during his trips to Tokyo, and proceeding with the relocation plans despite popular protests.
Takashi Onaga was elected governor of Okinawa on November 16, toppling the LDP-backed incumbent, Hirokazu Nakaima. Nakaima had supported Tokyo’s agreement with the U.S. to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Ginowan to the Henoko district of the city of Nago. Meanwhile, Onaga ran on an anti-base platform: he and his supporters believe that the burden of maintaining U.S. forces should be distributed more evenly throughout Japan. His victory, as well as the victory of all four candidates who opposed the relocation plan in the December 14 Lower House snap election, sends a loud and clear signal that Okinawans oppose the central government’s plan for their prefecture.
Read the full story at The Diplomat