NAHA--The island prefecture of Okinawa got left behind from mainland Japan decades ago. Postwar U.S. military occupation primarily took care of that.

Now, as Okinawa marks the 49th anniversary of its return to Japanese sovereignty, the lingering effects of being under U.S. control for so long are coming into sharper focus.

That, and the impact of the COVID-19 crisis, have had a devastating toll on the local economy.

Okinawa was the independent Ryukyu Kingdom until 1879 when it was annexed by Japan.

While the U.S. military was in charge of the southernmost prefecture, a policy of dependency on imports made it difficult to establish a manufacturing base. So tourism became a vital source of income to reduce islanders' economic dependence on U.S. military bases.

Even today, the prefecture hosts more than 70 percent of all U.S. military facilities in Japan.

The novel coronavirus pandemic proved to be the nail in the coffin in some respects. Tourism figures have plummeted, forcing islanders to make painful choices.

The anniversary on May 15 passed with little fanfare, partly perhaps because Okinawa is in the grip of the rainy season where humidity often exceeds 90 percent.

A 53-year-old resident who lives in an old wooden apartment with her two sons of junior high school age normally does not turn on the air conditioner even in withering heat.

“I am trying to cut expenses because I never know when I may lose my job again,” she explained.

The woman now works part-time as a room maid at a hotel located in the lively Kokusai-dori area of central Naha. She works 15 days or so a month for about 100,000 yen ($910).

A few days ago, her boss announced he was cutting her working days due to low occupancy rates during the recently ended Golden Week holiday period when about half of the hotel's rooms remained vacant.

The woman previously spent about five years working at a popular resort hotel, but in late May 2020 she and about 30 others were told to find work elsewhere.

She found her current job through the unemployment office, and she is glad to have it even though her monthly income has fallen by several tens of thousands of yen.

Still, the woman considers herself lucky because some of her former colleagues have yet to find new jobs.

“I never thought the tourism sector was such a fragile one where I would end up losing my job so easily,” she said.

DISPARITY IN UNEMPLOYMENT RATES

The worsening unemployment rate in Okinawa is testimony to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

At one time, the unemployment rate in Okinawa was within 0.3 percentage point of the national average. In March, the national average was 2.7 percent while in Okinawa the unemployment rate was 4.4 percent.

In 1972, when Okinawa returned to Japanese sovereignty, the unemployment rate was 2.6 times higher than the national average, due mainly to so many local people losing their jobs with the U.S. military.

For the next decade, the disparity remained at a twofold level.

Since 2000, the disparity has remained above two percentage points of the national average. But over the past 10 years, the disparity narrowed due mainly to sharp growth in the tourism sector. That brought the Okinawa unemployment rate close to parity with the national average.

Okinawans have spent decades campaigning to move away from dependence on U.S. military bases, which remain highly unpopular.

Soon after Okinawa returned to Japanese sovereignty, U.S. military bases accounted for 15.5 percent of total income for Okinawa residents. But that figure now stands at 6 percent, while tourism made up 14.9 percent of total income as of fiscal 2017.

“Industries such as tourism, where services are provided directly to customers, have received the most damage from the pandemic,” noted Hibiki Ichiue, who heads the Naha branch of the Bank of Japan. “Because Okinawa is one of the prefectures most dependent on tourism, it has been heavily affected.”

LEGACY OF OCCUPATION

Compared with other parts of Japan, Okinawa’s manufacturing base is miniscule and its economy is heavily centered on the tertiary services sector, such as tourism.

When Okinawa was under U.S. military occupation, the spending power of the yen was three times that of mainland Japan. That led to a dependence on imports, which deprived local manufacturers of the opportunity to develop to a competitive level.

In various economic revitalization plans for Okinawa based on special measures laws, fostering the manufacturing sector has been a persistent goal. Raising income levels that are among the lowest in the nation and reducing the unemployment rate are other major targets.

But those issues proved difficult to overcome as the overall Japanese economy entered a long period of low growth.

“The effects from the U.S. military occupation are directly linked to the current lives of local residents,” said Kazuhiro Miyagi, an economics professor at Okinawa International University. “One theme that must be looked at more carefully is the various burdens placed on Okinawa by the U.S. military bases.”

(This article was written by Shogo Mitsuzumi, Daizo Teramoto and Tsukasa Kimura.)