Ruling camp-backed rookie Taketoyo Toguchi defeated incumbent Susumu Inamine in a mayoral election in Nago, Okinawa Prefecture, on Sunday.
Ruling camp-backed rookie Taketoyo Toguchi defeated incumbent Susumu Inamine in a mayoral election in Nago, Okinawa Prefecture, on Sunday.
In the one-for-one contest, Toguchi, a 56-year-old former member of the Nago city assembly, garnered 20,389 votes and the 72-year-old incumbent 16,931 votes. Voter turnout came to 76.92 pct, up 0.21 percentage point from the previous mayoral election. A record 21,660 people, about 44 pct of the eligible voters in the city, had cast ballots before Sunday. It was the first mayor’s race in Nago since the central government started in April last year seawall construction off the coastline of the city’s Henoko district for the relocation of the U.