On the defeat in the Uruma City Mayoral Election added to All Okinawa’s continuing string of campaigns and losses, Governor Denny Tamaki quips, “The vote gap was a shock.” (29ap25)

Splendor of Okinawa: French Rose, roadside Futenma, 28ap25


With the opening of ballots in the Uruma City Mayoral Election on 27 April, the male candidate connected to All Okinawa, the party supporting Governor Denny Tamaki, took a drubbing.


Considering that loss and the decline in support for All Okinawa, Governor Tamaki replied to queries from reporters, early the next morning on 28 April. 


The governor noted, “It’s been over 10 years since the All Okinawa coalition was formed. I wonder if there’ve been changes in the social situation. However, those who created All Okinawa are still committed to it.”


In the Uruma City Election, current Mayor Masato Nakamura (60), an independent backed by the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito, achieved reelection,  garnering 25,699 votes. His opponent, former Prefectural Assemblyman Taiga Teruya (53), an independent novice, supported by the Constitutional Democratic Party, Socialist Party, Communist Party, and Okinawa Social Masses  Party, came in second with 18,725 votes. The gap in his loss to Mayor Nakamura was about 7 thousand votes. Governor Tamaki reiterated, “I frankly find that gap a shock!”


The tide in the strength of All Okinawa, which has opposed the relocation of the US Futenma Airfield in Ginowan to Henoko in Nago (both in Okinawa Prefecture), is seriously ebbing away.


However, the governor noted, “Uruma City has long been a conservative constituency. Straight from the beginning, the campaign understood that it’s necessary to respond suitably, when going against a conservative incumbent in a conservative constituency.”


Thus, within the prefecture, it continues to be the case that in all of Okinawa’s city governments, there is not a single mayor left who is associated with All Okinawa.


In January of this year, with the reelection loss of the incumbent mayor of Miyako Island, incumbent mayors supported by All Okinawa reached zero. In the Okinawa City Mayoral Election that followed, All Okinawa’s candidate was defeated. In the February Urasoe Mayoral Election, since All Okinawa did not have a candidate to field, it lost by default.


Original Japanese article: Sankei Shimbun, published Monday 28 April 2025 at 10:49.

https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/1e4962f2c47998380755e5071d7962ec19f82da6


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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