Of the many local elections held in Japan earlier this month, the one that received national attention was of course the Okinawa Prefecture gubernatorial election on Sept. 11.
The election pitted incumbent Gov. Denny Tamaki, supported by the Japanese Communist Party and others on the left, against former Ginowan Mayor Atsushi Sakima, backed by the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito. Sakima challenged and lost to Tamaki four years ago in 2018. Also in the race was independent Mikio Shimoji, a former member of the Lower House who was seen, because of his conservative origins, as a spoiler hurting Sakima’s prospects.
Tamaki, the oldest of the three candidates (all very close in age), won by nearly 65,000 votes (339,767 to 274,844) over his closest rival, Sakima. This was a near 60,000-vote decline in support from the 2018 contest, in which Tamaki likely received many “sympathy votes” from supporters of his predecessor, Takeshi Onaga, the onetime leader of the All Okinawa anti-base movement who died in office following a long battle with cancer.