The defeat of the incumbent mayor of Nago, Okinawa Prefecture, at the hands of a contender backed by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ruling coalition in Sunday's election marks a severe setback for Okinawa Gov. Takeshi Onaga, who has relied on the "popular will" of local voters in opposing the national government's construction of a replacement facility in the Henoko area of Nago city for the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station. The loss of the Onaga-backed mayor, who opposed Futenma's relocation, may spell trouble for his own chances in December's gubernatorial race. The Abe administration, however, should not take the election outcome as an unambiguous thumbs-up by local voters for the base. Instead of rushing to accelerate the construction work, the government should continue efforts to win Okinawa residents' support of the project.
Since the relocation of the Futenma base — which is located in the midst of Ginowan city in central Okinawa — was agreed on by the Japanese and U.S. governments in 1996 and Nago was subsequently named as the site for the new facility, Nago voters have been sharply divided over the project. A plebiscite held in 1997 showed a majority of Nago voters opposing construction of the new facility in the city's Henoko area. Opponents and proponents of the project have both won mayoral elections over the past 20 years. Mayor Susumu Inamine, who was first elected in 2010 on a platform opposing the Henoko facility's construction, was seeking a third term.
The winner in Sunday's election, Taketoyo Toguchi, a former local assemblyman backed by the Liberal Democratic Party-Komeito alliance, avoided making his position clear on the Henoko facility's construction and instead focused on beefing up education and welfare measures, and promotion of the local economy through dialogue with the national government. He maintained that he would "closely watch" the development of the legal battle between the state and the prefecture over the Henoko construction.