Design decided by popular vote for Shuri License Plates, with issuance eyed for October 2023! (27no22)


Splendor of Okinawa: Cuban Holly, roadside Uruma, 26no22


At his regular press conference on 25 November, Okinawa Prefecture Governor Denny Tamaki announced the result of the vote for the “Shuri Castle license plate design,” after a popular vote was held among the prefecture’s people. 


The total of ballots cast was 12,625. The highest number of votes (4888) went to a design submitted by Seina Ito (34) of Naha, depicting Shuri Castle along with shisa (lion-dog statues) and bougainvillea, Naha’s city flower. After her design was selected, she stated ecstatically, “I’m full of feelings of delight, when I think that these license plates will play a role, however slight, in the rebuilding of Shuri Castle!” 


Issuance of the Shuri Number Plates is scheduled to begin in October of 2023. The Prefecture is putting together resources for the Shuri reconstruction. As part of that, the Prefecture announced it would put a Shuri Castle design on “region designated plates”, which show individual place names on license plates.


Designs were publicly elicited from prefectural residents. 171 designs were submitted in response. A panel of expert judges selected the best 9. Then a popular vote was held on them among the people of the prefecture between 14 October and 3 November. On 25 November, the award ceremony was held and Seina Ito’s submission was selected.


The Prefecture made this evaluation of her work, “The palace hall is painted as facing the sky. Her work is exceptionally wonderful in letting us remember the image of Shuri Castle, now  facing its future reconstruction.” 

As for the use of shisa in her design, Seina Ito explained, “I thought, wouldn’t it be nice if I could incorporate the protection of the new Shuri Castle and Okinawa’s traffic safety.”

　

Original Japanese article: Ryukyu Shimpo, published Friday 25 November 2022. Byline: Yu Takei

https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/7cfe533d20554b2d562f78e6ed1f421f9c073bf9


Denny in the News: news about Governor Denny Tamaki.

Denny Tamaki is the governor of Okinawa Prefecture in Japan. Although Okinawa is important as an international tourist destination and a key element in strategic US Military Forces, its governor receives very little coverage in the Japanese press and almost none in the English language media. 

  1. This blog hopes to  translate one news article a day on the governor.  It is unsponsored and unauthorized. The translator simply hopes to improve his skills and perhaps give the governor an English speaking audience. 

  2. Any suggestion on improving the translation will be gratefully accepted. However, please leave political comments for another forum.

  3. Where they occur, words and phrases in Ryukyuan (the Okinawan language) are rendered in italics and translated in parentheses. Names  whose readings are uncertain are rendered as Name (=Kanji?) as in Nagayuki (=長行?). Any corrections in such instances would be gratefully appreciated.


 

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