More than 70 percent of voters in Okinawa rejected a decades-old plan to relocate a U. S. air base within the prefecture in a referendum on Sunday, giving fresh impetus to the Okinawa government’s attempt to stop the transfer. The prefectural referendum is viewed as no more than
More than 70 percent of voters in Okinawa rejected a decades-old plan to relocate a U. S. air base within the prefecture in a referendum on Sunday, giving fresh impetus to the Okinawa government’s attempt to stop the transfer.
The prefectural referendum is viewed as no more than symbolic, however, as the result is not binding on Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government, which has already pushed ahead with work to build a replacement facility for U. S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma.
The central government will stick to the plan but may face public backlash if it continues to ignore the Okinawa people, possibly harming the ruling party’s prospects in this year’s upper house and local assembly elections.
The number of « no » votes also exceeded the one-quarter threshold obliging Okinawa Gov Denny Tamaki to abide by the outcome. Abe and U. S. President Donald Trump will be notified of the outcome as stipulated by the referendum ordinance when any of the options is approved by a quarter of eligible voters.
The turnout was 52.48 percent, according to the prefecture, topping the 50 percent line seen as giving legitimacy to the referendum. The figure compares with 59.53 percent in the previous referendum on scaling back U. S. bases in Okinawa and reviewing the Japan-U. S. Status of Forces Agreement in 1996, and 63.24 percent of September’s gubernatorial election in which Tamaki won as he campaigned to block the relocation plan.
« This is the first time that opposition specifically to the plan…was clearly shown so it bears significant meaning, » Tamaki told reporters after the result was finalized.
« I fully take the people’s resolution, and strongly call on (the central government) to stop the relocation work, » he said.
