Frustrated by economic hardship, Okinawans have rallied behind a new governor, leaving long-standing anti-base resistance in disarray
4-MIN READ4-MIN ListenMaria SiowPublished: 11:00am, 17 Sep 2026Okinawa has handed a landslide victory to a conservative who accepts Tokyo’s plans for relocating a controversial US airbase – delivering a blow to 12 years of anti-base politics in Japan’s southernmost prefecture.Genta Koja’s victory on Sunday over two-term governor Denny Tamaki raised a question cutting to the heart of Okinawa’s post-war politics: is it finally starting to move on from the US military base issue?
Tamaki, by contrast, had opposed the base project for his entire tenure as governor, a stance he inherited from his late predecessor after winning 2018’s election on an anti-base platform.
