Okinawa Governor Race Opens; LDP Seeks Comeback after 12 Yrs

Naha, Okinawa Pref., Aug. 27 (Jiji Press)--The official campaign period began on Thursday for the Sept. 13 gubernatorial election for Japan's southernmost prefecture of Okinawa.

The focus is whether the Liberal Democratic Party will be able to retake the helm of the prefecture after a break of about 12 years. The outcome is likely to affect the administration of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, the party's president.

On Thursday, six people filed their candidacies, including LDP-backed Genta Koja, 42, former vice mayor of Naha, Okinawa's capital, and incumbent Governor Denny Tamaki, 66, who seeks a third four-year term.

Key election issues include a project to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma air station in the Okinawa city of Ginowan to the Henoko coastal district in Nago, another Okinawa city, as well as Okinawa's economic development.

Delivering his first campaign speech in Naha, Koja said that high prices and traffic congestion are major problems the prefecture needs to tackle, pledging to "change a stagnant prefectural government into one that moves ahead."

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]