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Mayor in Okinawa reelected on campaign supporting GSDF deployment

Xinhua, January 23, 2017 Adjust font size:

Toshihiko Shimoji, 71, won his third four-year term as mayor of Miyakojima city in Okinawa Prefecture on Sunday, being reelected on a campaign of supporting plans for a Ground Self-Defense Force unit to be deployed there (GSDF).

The three other candidates he beat included two who were against the GSDF unit being deployed there, whereas the other candidate, like Shimoji, was in favor of it.

According to local officials, the central government headed by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, is planning to deploy more of its GSDF units to the sub-tropical island of Okinawa and purportedly told Miyakojima city of its intentions in May 2015.

But while the government plans to beef up its plans and put more military assets and personnel on the tiny island which accounts for a fraction of Japans land mass, yet sees the majority of the U.S. military forces bases and personnel deployed in Japan hosted there, the local people have consistently voiced their opposition to the move.

Instances of noise, pollution and crimes, including a brutal rape of an elementary school girl by three U.S. service people in 1995, as well as the rape and murder of a young local girl by a base-linked worker last year, saw local Okinawans take to the streets to demand the U.S. bases be relocated off the island and the land returned to Okinawa and for Okinawas post-war occupation by the U.S. forces backed by the central government here ended.

According to the local election board, the total off all the ballots counted reveled that Shimoji won reelection with 9,587 votes, while Kazuo Okuhira, supported by the Democratic Party and standing against the GSDFs deployment won 6,545 votes.

Norihiko Maeshiro, a former leader of the Miyakojima city assembly, supported the deployment plan and won 6,545, whereas Akira Shimoji, backed by the Social Democratic Party and the Okinawa Social Mass Party, was against the deployment and won 4,020.

The election board said it was the lowest voter turnout since 2005 when the city was launched. Enditem