Relocation of U.S. base dominates Japan's Ginowan city mayoral election

Voting started Sunday morning for the mayoral election in Ginowan, Okinawa Prefecture, with the relocation of a controversial U.S. military base a central theme of the race.

Vying for the position of mayor of the city of Ginowan are incumbent Atsushi Sakima, 51, who is hoping to secure his second four-year term, and Keiichiro Shimura, a 63-year-old former prefectural government employee.

The two independent politicians have contrasting views with each other on the the central government's contentious plans to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma from Ginowan to the coastal Henoko district of Nago.

Shimura is backed by Okinawa Governor Takeshi Onaga, a staunch advocate of relocating the base outside the prefecture and is currently locked in an escalating legal battle with the central government over the issue.

He is also, along with being supported by the ruling parties of the Okinawa prefectural assembly, comprising the Social Democratic Party and the Japanese Communist Party, also backed by a significant number of local assembly members.

With the support of the governor and assembly members, along with vociferous civic groups and individuals, Shimura has pledged to close the Futenma base, home to some 3,000 U.S. Marines and serving U.S. forces since the bloody Battle of Okinawa in 1945, and return the land to Okinawa.

"Relocating the base to Henoko will not reduce the burden of the Okinawan people," Shimura, who said he will remain staunchly opposed the base's move, was quoted by local media as saying to voters Saturday.

Sakima, for his part, has the backing of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its junior Komeito party ally. And while not specifically referencing the government's plans to relocate the base within the prefecture, a move strongly opposed by the local citizens who feel they have been forced to host the majority of Japan's U.S. bases on their island for decades, Sakima holds the base's shutdown as central to his campaign.

The LDP-backed candidate has said he will replace the Futenma base with a Disney resort, with Abe hoping a victory for his contender will speed up the impasse between the regional and central government and derail Onaga's ceaseless efforts to block the relocation plans.

"The Okinawan people want the Futenma base to be returned without further delay," Sakima was quoted as telling voters Saturday.

In 1996, the Japanese and U.S. governments inked an accord to close down the Futenma base and return land occupied by the facility to Okinawa, with the transfer of the base's function's aimed partly at reducing the burden on Okinawa and its people.

Okinawa island accounts for less than 1 percent of Japan's total land mass, but hosts about 75 percent of U.S. military facilities in the country.

The majority of Japanese people, polls have shown, including those on the mainland and on Okinawa island, believe Abe and his administration are mishandling the base relocation issue, with the generality in Japan's southernmost prefecture wanting the new base relocated off the island at a bare minimum, and out of Japan if possible.

Okinawans have consistently called on both prefectural and central governments to see their base-hosting burdens lifted, amid instances of numerous military-related accidents, such as the August 2004 incident of a Marine CH-53D Sea Stallion heavy assault transport helicopter crashing into the Okinawa International University in Ginowan.

Other local distresses have been connected to increasing pollution caused by the military and a number of globally-reported crimes committed by U.S. military personnel. Endit