The mayor of Ginowan, the site of Okinawa's contentious U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, hinted Wednesday he may run in the gubernatorial election scheduled for November and threatened to throw a spanner in the process of relocating the base within the prefecture.
Speaking at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo, Yoichi Iha said the upcoming poll is a crucial opportunity for the people of Okinawa to voice their opposition to relocating the base to the Henoko coast in Nago, farther north on Okinawa Island.
"I myself believe that there is a great possibility that I will be one of the candidates" in the election, Iha said. "We must express how absolutely ridiculous it is that another base is about to be built 65 years after World War II."