The 2018 Okinawa gubernatorial election was held on 30 September 2018 to elect the next Governor of

Okinawa is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi). Naha is the capital and largest city ...

. As there are no term limits in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, incumbent Governor

Takeshi Onaga (2 October 1950 – 8 August 2018) was a Japanese politician and the seventh Governor of Okinawa Prefecture from 2014 to 2018. Onaga served as a member of the Okinawa Prefectural Assembly from 1992 to 1996 and four terms as mayor of Naha, the ...

was eligible for re-election before his death in August 2018. The election was originally scheduled to be held on 9 December 2018, but this was brought forward after Onaga's untimely death. Onaga's deputy, Kiichiro Jahana temporarily assumed his post for three days until being replaced as interim governor by Moritake Tomikawa. This was the first gubernatorial election in Okinawa since the voting age was lowered to 18. The relocation of the US air base in Ginowan to Nago was a major issue in the race. The campaign period ran from 13 September until election day. The election was won by

Denny Tamaki is a Japanese politician and the current Governor of Okinawa Prefecture since August 2018. Tamaki was a member of the Okinawa Prefectural Assembly for Okinawa City from 2002 to 2005 and became the first Amerasian member of the Japanese Hou ...

. Tamaki, like Onaga, wants a fundamental reduction of the U.S. presence in Okinawa.

Candidates

Running

* Atsushi Sakima, mayor of

Ginowan ( ryu, ジノーン, translit=Jinōn) is a city located in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. As of 2012, the city has an estimated population of 94,405, with 40,041 households and a population density of 4,838.8 persons per km2. The total area is 19.5 ...

(2012–2018). (endorsed by LDP,

Komeito , formerly New Komeito and abbreviated NKP, is a conservative political party in Japan founded by lay members of the Buddhist Japanese new religious movement Soka Gakkai in 1964. Since 2012, it has served in government as the junior coalitio ...

Nippon Ishin no Kai The is a conservative and right-wing populist political party in Japan. Formed as ''Initiatives from Osaka'' in October 2015 from a split in the old Japan Innovation Party, the party became the third-biggest opposition party in the National D ...

and Kibo) *

, member of the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

for the Okinawa 3rd district (2009–2018). (supported by CDP, DPFP,

JCP JCP may refer to: *Java Community Process, a method of handling software requests * J. C. Penney, a United States department store chain *Jenny Craig Pavilion, an arena at the University of San Diego *Jim Crockett Promotions, a former professional ...

, LP, SDP and

OSMP The Open Source Metaverse Project (OSMP) was a multi-participant shared virtual world online platform. This platform was free and open-source software co-founded in 2004 by Hugh Perkins and Jorge Lima. OSMP is loosely modeled on the World Wide ...

) *Hatsumi Toguchi, former member of the

Naha is the capital city of Okinawa Prefecture, the southernmost prefecture of Japan. As of 1 June 2019, the city has an estimated population of 317,405 and a population density of 7,939 persons per km2 (20,562 persons per sq. mi.). The total area i ...

City Assembly. *Shun Kaneshima, former IT company employee.

Speculative

, incumbent Governor, died in August 2018.

Declined

*Morimasa Goya, local businessman and Onaga ally.

Campaign

Similar to the previous gubernatorial election, the issue of the relocation of the US air base in Ginowan to Nago dominated the campaign. The two main candidates were on opposing camps on the issue with Tamaki opposing any relocation within the prefecture and Sakima supporting the relocation. Tamaki made the relocation issue the main plank of his campaign. On the other hand, Sakima downplayed the relocation issue and instead focused on the local economy in his pitch. Voters that cited the base relocation as their most important issue mostly supported Tamaki, while those more concerned with the economy supported Sakima.

Results

The exit poll on election night indicated a large victory for Tamaki and the

NHK , also known as NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized initialism in Japanese, is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee. NHK operates two terrestri ...

called the election for Tamaki early during the count. He gained 396,632 votes, the most votes ever obtained by a candidate in an Okinawa-wide election.

Breakdown

References

2018 elections in Japan

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

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