Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki was re-elected in a gubernatorial poll on Sept. 11.

Tamaki’s victory means voters in Okinawa Prefecture have elected a governor opposed to the central government’s plan to build a new U.S. military base off the Henoko district of the city of Nago three times running.

The central government has been forging ahead with a contentious land reclamation project aimed at providing a replacement facility to take over the functions of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Ginowan, also in the prefecture. 

Voters in the southernmost prefecture delivered the same verdict in a prefectural referendum on the issue held in February 2019.

Okinawa has shown its rock-solid will to reject the Futenma relocation plan. The administration of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida should immediately stop the reclamation work and start exploring potential alternative plans.

Atsushi Sakima, a former Ginowan mayor and the candidate backed by the Kishida administration, clearly expressed his intention to accept the Henoko project during his election campaign.

Sakima ran for governor four years ago as well. At that time, he was equivocal about the issue, saying only, “I will closely monitor developments on both the national and prefectural levels.”

This time, however, the Futenma replacement facility plan was a clear battle line between the two camps and voters handed down a clear verdict.

Even so, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno in a Sept. 12 news conference reiterated the government’s position that relocating the Futenma facility to Henoko is “the only solution.”

Matsuno’s remarks underscored the Kishida administration’s reluctance to pay serious attention to dissenting voices although Kishida tries to tout his “ability to listen.”

The high-handed political approach has been the norm since the previous administrations of former Prime Ministers Shinzo Abe and Yoshihide Suga.

It is characterized by blatant disregard for criticisms, attempts to create faits accomplis and manipulation of the distribution of state subsidies to local governments to forcefully win over local communities.

The fact that this approach has eroded public trust in the nation’s democracy and the underlying election system should be taken seriously.

The government’s single-minded pursuit of the Henoko project does not make sense also from the viewpoint of cost effectiveness.

Full-scale land reclamation work off Henoko began at the end of 2018. Even though it appears that wide areas of land have already been reclaimed, the amount of dirt that has been dumped only represents 11 percent of the planned total.

Since a large swath of weak seabed was found to constitute the northern half of the planned reclamation area, the Defense Ministry’s estimate of the construction cost has ballooned 170 percent from the initial figure to some 930 billion yen ($6.52 billion).

The cost is bound to increase further given the need to take measures to deal with future subsidence of the reclaimed land and other problems.

Some argue that maintaining the functions of the Futenma air station is vital for Japan’s security. As China has acquired more advanced missile technologies, however, the U.S. military has adjusted its forces deployment strategy, switching from concentrating troops in specific areas to diffusing them widely to reduce risks.

There is no reason for the government to stick to the Futenma relocation plan, which was conceived a quarter-century ago.

Instead of trying to impose the burden of hosting so many U.S. bases on people in Okinawa while refusing to give serious consideration to other options, the administration should provide more policy support to the prefecture.

This support could come in the form of helping Okinawa's key tourism industry recover from the severe damage inflicted by the COVID-19 pandemic, enhance the local health care system and deal with the increasingly serious problem of poverty among children.

Half a century has passed since Okinawa was returned to Japan. But the prefecture has been buffeted by the Henoko problem during the latter half of the period, with local residents caught in an unwanted confrontation and division.

In a ceremony to mark Okinawa’s reversion held half a century ago, then Governor Chobyo Yara said Okinawa historically had always been “used as a means.” His words still ring true today.

Politicians and people in Japan’s mainland should ask themselves whether they should be allowed to continue sacrificing one specific region for the nation’s security and foreign policy benefits.

The Asahi Shimbun, Sept. 13