NAGO, Okinawa Pref. — Okinawa voters decided to stay the course and hope for better economic times by re-electing incumbent Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima, 71, to a second term Sunday night.
Although widely predicted, Nakaima's narrow victory comes as a relief to Tokyo and Washington, who feared that a victory by Nakaima's primary challenger, Yoichi Iha, 58, would have left them little room to progress in relocating the U.S. Marine base at Futenma to the Henoko district in northern Okinawa, as agreed to by Japan and the U.S. this past May.
The final results had not been tallied as of late Sunday night, but the latest results showed Nakaima holding a 20,000-vote lead that was considered insurmountable.