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▼ Campaigning Starts for Nago Mayoral Race; U.S. Base Issue in Focus
- Category:Event
NAHA - Official campaigning started Sunday for the Feb 4 mayoral election in the southern Japan city of Nago in Okinawa Prefecture, a closely watch contest as it comes as the central government is pressing ahead with a controversial plan to relocate a U.S. base to the city.
The election will pit the anti-base incumbent mayor Susumu Inamine, 72, against challenger Taketoyo Toguchi, 56, backed by the ruling coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party and the Komeito party.
Its outcome could have an impact on the Okinawa gubernatorial election late this year. The term of Gov Takeshi Onaga, who opposes the base relocation, expires in December.
Inamine has been calling for scrapping the central government's plan, based on the Japan-U.S. agreement in 1996, to move U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Ginowan, central Okinawa, to Nago's Henoko district.
He is supported by opposition parties including the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and the Japanese Communist Party.
The Japanese government is scheduled to reclaim around 157 hectares of land in waters off the Henoko area and construct a V-shaped runway.
Toguchi, a former Nago assembly member known to be supportive of the base transfer, pledges to promote the local economy with the central government's support.
While Toguchi has not referred to the base issue as a focal point of the election, government sources have said the administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will provide a subsidy to Nago for hosting the U.S. facility.
Okinawa hosts the bulk of U.S. military facilities. Accidents involving U.S. military aircraft and crimes involving U.S. personnel have angered Okinawa residents, but whether to gain more economic support from the central government has also been a key issue in local elections in the prefecture.
"We should never allow construction of a new base in Henoko. As long as Gov Takeshi Onaga is in office and I am the mayor of Nago, land reclamation will not move forward," Inamine told his supporters Sunday morning.
Toguchi told his supporters, "Mr Inamine's administration is excessively concerned with a single issue and has paid little attention to citizens' lives."
The government began building seawalls in Henoko's coast to enclose the reclamation area in April in a major step toward the relocation. The central and Okinawa governments are engaged in a court battle after Onaga filed a fresh lawsuit in July to block the base transfer plan.
According to the local election committee, there are 49,372 registered voters in Nago.
© KYODO
The election will pit the anti-base incumbent mayor Susumu Inamine, 72, against challenger Taketoyo Toguchi, 56, backed by the ruling coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party and the Komeito party.
Its outcome could have an impact on the Okinawa gubernatorial election late this year. The term of Gov Takeshi Onaga, who opposes the base relocation, expires in December.
Inamine has been calling for scrapping the central government's plan, based on the Japan-U.S. agreement in 1996, to move U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Ginowan, central Okinawa, to Nago's Henoko district.
He is supported by opposition parties including the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and the Japanese Communist Party.
The Japanese government is scheduled to reclaim around 157 hectares of land in waters off the Henoko area and construct a V-shaped runway.
Toguchi, a former Nago assembly member known to be supportive of the base transfer, pledges to promote the local economy with the central government's support.
While Toguchi has not referred to the base issue as a focal point of the election, government sources have said the administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will provide a subsidy to Nago for hosting the U.S. facility.
Okinawa hosts the bulk of U.S. military facilities. Accidents involving U.S. military aircraft and crimes involving U.S. personnel have angered Okinawa residents, but whether to gain more economic support from the central government has also been a key issue in local elections in the prefecture.
"We should never allow construction of a new base in Henoko. As long as Gov Takeshi Onaga is in office and I am the mayor of Nago, land reclamation will not move forward," Inamine told his supporters Sunday morning.
Toguchi told his supporters, "Mr Inamine's administration is excessively concerned with a single issue and has paid little attention to citizens' lives."
The government began building seawalls in Henoko's coast to enclose the reclamation area in April in a major step toward the relocation. The central and Okinawa governments are engaged in a court battle after Onaga filed a fresh lawsuit in July to block the base transfer plan.
According to the local election committee, there are 49,372 registered voters in Nago.
© KYODO
- January 29, 2018
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