Koja victory may reshape Okinawa’s stance on US military presence

Genta Koja has defeated two-term incumbent Denny Tamaki in Okinawa’s gubernatorial election, a result that could alter the prefecture’s position on Japan’s expanding defence arrangements with the United States.

Officials said Koja won 59 per cent of the vote. The 42-year-old, a former deputy mayor of Naha, was backed by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s Liberal Democratic Party.

Koja will be Okinawa’s youngest governor since the prefecture reverted to Japan from US rule in 1972, as well as its first governor born after the reversion. Tamaki, 66, had long advocated moving a major US military base out of Okinawa.

Al Jazeera reported that the result could potentially end Okinawa’s legal efforts to block the relocation of US Marines from Futenma air base to a new facility at Henoko. The election outcome does not establish that those legal challenges have ended.

The result may also make it easier for civilian airports and ports to be designated for military use, according to analysis cited by Al Jazeera. Any such change remains a projected consequence of the election rather than a confirmed policy decision.

The vote comes as Takaichi’s government prepares a national security strategy expected to accelerate Japan’s military build-up. Okinawa forms part of the first island chain, while Yonaguni Island lies about 110km east of Taiwan, amid rising tensions between Tokyo and Beijing over Taiwan and Japan’s potential response to a Chinese attack.