The Okinawa Prefectural Assembly unanimously approved a proposal by the Assembly Chair to normalize the 2 week extraordinary situation over debate on the 2025 Budget Proposal. (25fe25)

Splendor of Okinawa: Treasure Flower, roadside Uruma, 14mr24.


The Okinawa Prefectural Assembly opened its February Scheduled Session at 10 on the morning of 25 February. At the very start of the general session, the 2025 Preliminary General Budget Proposal, whose fate had been held dangling in the air, came up. Chair Kyoki Nakagawa proclaimed, “From today, debate will get underway on the agenda”, and his proposal was accepted by unanimous consent.


On 12 February, a motion was passed by the Assembly to hand back the budget proposal and return it to proper authority. Now, about 2 weeks later, the extraordinary situation, in which there would have been no debate on the Preliminary General Budget Proposal, its highest ever at 889.4 trillion yen,  has ended, and normality returned.


Regarding the Preliminary Budget Proposal, a sum of about 40 million yen had been included as expenses for the Prefecture’s Washington Office, whose errors in administrative procedures during its establishment have been brought to light. 


Responding to such issues, the Liberal Democratic Party ( LDP), as the administration opposition party in the Assembly, strongly objected to the proposal. At the 12 February Scheduled Assembly Session, the LDP passed a motion by a majority, with help from Komeito, requesting the handing back and return to proper authority of the budget proposal, noting, “This proposal shall not receive a vote at the Assembly!”.


However, the Ministry of General Affairs, in response to a query for advice from the Prefectural General Affairs Department, expressed its point of view that as there was no legal precedent for returning the budget, it remained as it was with the Assembly. With that opinion in hand, Governor Denny Tamaki requested that the Assembly debate the original proposal.


However, in order to take up the motion, which had itself demanded “This proposal shall not receive a vote at the Assembly!”, a possibility arose of ignoring the principle of “no revotes”, namely,  that  after  a bill has been voted once, it cannot return to the agenda in the same session.


However, at the 21 February Assembly steering committee meeting, the opinion of the Ministry of General Affairs was brought up. Both the ruling and opposition party members shared the opinion that the “no revote” principle was inapplicable, due to the fact that the “situation had remained unchanged”, putting it outside the “no revote” principle.



Original Japanese article: Ryukyu Shimpo, Tuesday 25 February 2025 at 11:21.

https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/aedb54ca54f8f1f3e8aa47a45f7d7a8e83c03f55


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 the 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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