Official campaigning started Sunday for the Feb 4 mayoral election in the southern Japan city of Nago in Okinawa Prefecture, a closely watch contest as it comes as the central government is pressing ahead with a controversial plan to relocate a U. S. base to the city. The election will
Official campaigning started Sunday for the Feb 4 mayoral election in the southern Japan city of Nago in Okinawa Prefecture, a closely watch contest as it comes as the central government is pressing ahead with a controversial plan to relocate a U. S. base to the city.
The election will pit the anti-base incumbent mayor Susumu Inamine, 72, against challenger Taketoyo Toguchi, 56, backed by the ruling coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party and the Komeito party.
Its outcome could have an impact on the Okinawa gubernatorial election late this year. The term of Gov Takeshi Onaga, who opposes the base relocation, expires in December.
Inamine has been calling for scrapping the central government’s plan, based on the Japan-U. S. agreement in 1996, to move U. S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Ginowan, central Okinawa, to Nago’s Henoko district.
He is supported by opposition parties including the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and the Japanese Communist Party.
