The upcoming mayoral election in Ginowan is shaping up as a proxy fight between the national government and Okinawa Gov. Takeshi Onaga, who have entered into a full-blown court battle over the plan to move U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma from the city to another site in Okinawa.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe claimed last week that the outcome of the Jan. 24 election won't affect the government project to build the replacement base in the Henoko area of Nago in northern Okinawa. But Onaga is concerned that a victory by the incumbent backed by Abe's ruling coalition, who remains vague on whether he supports the Futenma relocation to Henoko, would enable his administration to charge that the popular will in Okinawa is not entirely against the controversial project. On the other hand, a victory by a contender backed by the governor may spell trouble for the administration's plan to forge ahead with the base plan over local opposition.

Much is at stake in the row over the Futenma relocation issue, which last year developed into an extraordinary situation in which the central government and Okinawa Prefecture have sued each other. The Abe administration says construction of a new U.S. military base is a national security issue and essentially a central government matter. But Onaga contends that the dispute concerns the fundamental questions of local autonomy and democracy in Japan. Nearly 20 years after the conclusion of a 1996 bilateral accord that was meant to allay local anti-bases sentiment through the realignment of U.S. military facilities on the island, the relocation of Futenma remains a divisive issue.