NAGO, Okinawa Prefecture--Measures to improve the local economy and living conditions took priority over an “increasingly unwinnable fight” here, giving the incumbent a comfortable victory over his anti-U.S. military base challenger in the Nago mayoral election.

Taketoyo Toguchi, 60, backed by the central government, garnered 19,524 votes on Jan. 23 to win re-election as Nago mayor. In his campaign, he pitched economic programs funded by state grants provided to municipalities that host U.S. military facilities.

His opponent, Yohei Kishimoto, 49, a former Nago assemblyman backed by the opposition camp, gained 14,439 votes after his campaign focused mainly on his opposition to the construction of a U.S. military base off the Henoko district of Nago.

The city has long been known as the site for a contentious central government project to build a U.S. military facility that will take over the functions of the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Ginowan in the prefecture.

In February 2019, 70 percent of voters expressed opposition to the relocation plan in an Okinawa prefectural referendum.

But a number of Nago voters who agreed with Kishimoto’s stance picked Toguchi on Jan. 23 because of the economic doldrums that have hit the city. He has vowed to help residents who are raising children, such as providing free school lunches, free day care and free medical care for children.

Other voters seemed to have given up the fight against the base relocation project because it now appears unstoppable.

Voter turnout was a record low 68.32, down from 76.92 percent in the last election four years ago.

After the election results became certain, Toshimitsu Motegi, secretary-general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, promised to continue supporting Nago during online talks with Toguchi.

“Please do so for Nago’s development,” Toguchi said in reply.

The central government, under its “carrot-and-stick” policy, had suspended subsidy payments to Nago when an anti-base mayor was in office. The funding resumed after Toguchi was elected mayor for the first time in 2018.

Later that year, in December, work to reclaim land for the new base started off the Henoko district.

As he did in the previous election, Toguchi declined to talk about the base relocation project during campaigning, apparently to prevent the issue from igniting or consolidating opposition against him.

“I will watch how things develop in the ongoing legal battles between the central and prefectural governments,” he said.

Kishimoto blasted Toguchi for his refusal to address the base question, saying, “He is abandoning his responsibility as mayor.”

He also said Toguchi’s free economic programs could be implemented without central government funding.

However, Kishimoto did not clarify possible alternative sources for such funds, and his camp failed to convince voters that they would have a say on the U.S. base question.

Residents of Nago, located in the northern part of Okinawa Prefecture, feel the city has been left behind in the economic development of the prefecture, where southern cities serve as commercial hubs.

Tomomi Toyosato, 35, who works in the retailing sector, said she cast her ballot for Toguchi because of the support programs for children.

Toyosato said she has long been opposed to the Futenma relocation plan but now feels the central government will never stop the project, no matter how much Okinawa residents protest.

The support programs are “in return for accepting the base,” and that is the reality that Nago faces, she said.

Another staunch opponent of the base relocation plan also echoed a sense of resignation in the face of financial difficulties.

“I want to vote for the incumbent this time around because I am struggling to make a living,” the voter was quoted by the Kishimoto camp as saying.

Japan’s southernmost prefecture, which relies on tourism for 80 percent of its revenues, has been hit hard since the novel coronavirus pandemic struck.

The number of tourists to the prefecture topped 10 million in fiscal 2018, but the figure dropped to 2.58 million in fiscal 2020, the largest year-on-year decline since 1972, when Okinawa was returned to Japan from U.S. rule.

Still, Kishimoto focused on the base relocation project during the campaign.

“Spending taxpayer money any further on the project is not acceptable as it appears impossible to complete the landfill work due to the existence of weak seabed,” he said.

The reclamation of a 39-hectare portion of the site was completed by April 2021. The work for the remaining 111 hectares has been shelved because of the soft sea floor.

The central government acknowledged in 2019 that it needs to change the design of the landfill work because of the soft seabed.

The condition of the sea floor is expected to make the base project significantly more time-consuming and costly, as well as technologically challenging.