On the sudden death of its former mayor, Ginowan City in Okinawa declares its mayoral election with 3 candidates (a former mayor and 2 rookies) in the ring. (4se24)

Splendor of Okinawa: Pepper (food spice), Gushikawa RC Church, 25au24.


Ginowan City, which encompasses the US Military Futenma Airfield, declared its mayoral election on 1 September. This election is necessitated by the sudden death of the city’s mayor, the late Masanori Matsukawa.


Three candidates have registered to run, all as independents:

  1. Former City Assembly Member Isao Tobaru (65), endorsed by the Constitutional Democratic Party, the Communist Party, the Social Democratic Party, and the Social Democratic Masses Party.

  2.  Takashi Higa (47), a survey company representative,

  3. Former Ginowan Mayor Atsushi Sakima (60), endorsed by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and Komeito.


Futenma Airfield is scheduled for relocation to Henoko in Nago. Governor Denny Tamaki and others oppose the relocation and support Tobaru with the strength of their  All Okinawa coalition.


Meanwhile, Sakima takes the position of pushing cooperation with the Government in planning for the use of the vacant Airfield land after its reversion to Japan.


All in all, the race is expected to come down to a one on one between those two.


The LDP-Komeito coalition and others opposed to Governor Tamaki achieved a majority in the June Okinawa Prefectural Assembly elections. As the first mayoral election in the prefecture since then, the results of this election will be carefully scrutinized.


The ballots will be opened on 8 September.



Original Japanese article: Yomiuri Shimbun, published Sunday 1 September 2024 at 09:34

https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/b7ffc32514e8cfb8e78663b380c75650708ddccf



Denny in the News:


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. 


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. 


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


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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