Photo/Illutration Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

NAHA--Governor Denny Tamaki, a stalwart opponent of construction of a new U.S. military base in Okinawa Prefecture who has been a constant thorn in Tokyo’s side, was re-elected to a new four-year term.

He handily defeated his main rival, Atsushi Sakima, who was backed by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, in the Sept. 11 gubernatorial election.

The key issue in the election, as it has been in the past, was the central government’s project to build landfill to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Ginowan to close to Nago, both in the prefecture.

Tamaki, who is 62 and was backed by the opposition bloc, asserts that the hugely costly and vastly unpopular base project will never be completed due to the state of the soft seabed discovered in the area after reclamation work began.

The latest election was the seventh since the proposal to build a new U.S. base off the Henoko district of Nago surfaced. It coincided with the 50th anniversary this year of the southernmost prefecture’s return to Japan after years of U.S. military rule following the end of World War II.

About 70 percent of all U.S. military facilities in Japan are located in Okinawa, and islanders have been saying for years that enough is enough, citing accidents involving aircraft, crimes by U.S. service personnel and toxic spills at U.S. bases.

Tamaki’s re-election represented the third straight victory for forces opposed to the base project in gubernatorial races.

Sakima, 58, a former Ginowan mayor, decided this time around to make clear he endorses relocation of the base, unlike in the previous election four years ago.

He pledged to cut short the construction period and ensure the land occupied by the Futenma airfield is returned to Okinawa by 2030.

During the race, Sakima was dogged by reports he had attended a meeting of an organization linked to the Unification Church, now formally known as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification.

Although he vowed on the first day of campaigning to sever his ties with the religious group renowned for its relentless solicitation of donations, he could not dispel voters’ skepticism.

Another contender, Mikio Shimoji, 61, was a former Cabinet minister in charge of postal privatization. He called for a change in the project, including the suspension of reclamation of land in the area where the seabed is soft.

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