“Are we going to go off getting into fights with other countries?”, queries Okinawa Prefecture’s governor on a Taiwan crisis. (24fe26)

 Splendor of Okinawa: Ramgoat Dashalong, 13 fe24


On 23 February, Okinawa Prefecture Governor Denny Tamaki spoke on the Taiwan crisis at an event held in Naha, with China at the top of his mind, asking, “Is Japan getting into a fight with another country? As a country, are we really going to go so far?” The governor also brought up the fact that Japan’s low degree of self-sufficiency in food is the reason for its huge level of trade with China. 


The governor took the stage to give his address at the Nii-niyon Music Festival held that day. The event is held each February in memory of the referendum of 24 February  2024, in which the people of the prefecture questioned the necessity of the relocation of Ginowan’s US Military Futenma Airfield to Henoko in Nago.


Original Japanese article: Nikkei Shimbun, published Monday 23 February 2026 at 21:26.

https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXZQOJC231Y00T20C26A2000000/


Denny in the News: Denny Tamaki is the governor of Okinawa Prefecture in Japan. Although 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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