Okinawa’s New Governor. It’s the Economy Stupid

Ichiro Suzuki

On October 1, Genta Koja became Okinawa’s new governor, after a landslide victory in September election. At 42, he is the youngest Okinawa governor ever. Born in 1983, Koja is the first Okinawa governor born after the handover of the islands from the U.S. to Japan in 1972. The former bureaucrat and deputy mayor of Naha, Okinawa’s largest city, had flipped politics in the prefecture, by defeating the left-wing incumbent. 

Okinawa’s history for the last 80+ years has been characterized by its suffering. As WWII drew close to its end, Okinawa was the first Japanese territory the U.S. landed, with armed forces sent from the Philippines, which was retaken from the Japanese Imperial Army. The Battle of Okinawa claimed nearly 200,000 lives. They included 150,000 Okinawans -about a quarter of the local population- of whom 94,000 were civilians. 

The Japanese military viewed Okinawans with suspicions as second class subjects. Soldiers used locals as human shields, forcing them out of bomb shelters, seized their food, and coerced civilians into mass suicides with hand grenades or forced family killings to avoid capture. Intense U.S. air raids, artillery and ground combats obliterated roughly 90% of the islands’ infrastructure, turning towns and ancient cultural landmarks like Shuri Castle into ruins. Survivors hid in caves and ancestral tombs, enduring severe starvation, drinking maggots-infested water and facing unrelenting crossfire. 

Following the battle, the U.S. military forced surviving civilians into primitive internment and POW camps where inadequate food, contaminated water and poor medical care caused additional post-war deaths. The U.S. military seized vast swaths of agricultural land at a bayonet point to construct sprawling military bases, displacing families into poverty in shantytowns. Okinawa remained under direct control of U.S. military forces for 27 years after WWII, not reverting to Japanese sovereignty until May 15, 1972. 

Despite representing only 0.6% of Japan’s total land area, Okinawa continues to host roughly 70% of U.S. military facilities in Japan. Being close to Taiwan, mainland China, and Southeast Asia, Okinawa is too strategically located to have its military burden alleviated. During the Vietnam War, B-52s flew from Kadena Air Base in Okinawa. 

In 1972, Okinawa was handed over to Japan at last. Memories of miseries during and after WWII were so vivid in the minds of many Okimawans. It is quite understandable that expression of  grievances took the center stage in politics in Okinawa. Political messages tended to be focused on complaint and dissatisfaction against Tokyo and the United States. In this climate, voters in Okinawa elected left-leaning politicians more often than in the mainland. 

Uniquely Okinawa political movements culminated in All Okinawa. It is a cross-party political alliance of  progressives, civic groups, local businesses and grassroots movement on the islands, founded in 2014 by former governor Takeshi Onaga. Its core unifying mandate was absolute opposition to the central government’s plan to relocate U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma to the coastal Henoko district in Nago Coty. Surrounded by private houses, Futennma Air Station has been dubbed as the most dangerous military airfield of all U.S. bases around the world. In 1996, the U.S. and Japan had reached an agreement to relocate the Futenma Airfield to Henoko. After years of protests, debates, disputes and environmental studies, in 2013 then Okinawa governor Hirota Nakaima approved land reclamation projects that were required for construction of new airfield at Henoko. 

Then, Onaga was elected new governor in 2014 on a mandate of stopping the construction. All Okinawa’s movement drew a number of activists from the mainland. Supported by the Japan Communist Party and the Social Democratic Party, activists were engaged in intense sabotaging activities at the construction site. Governor Onaga opened Okinawa Prefecture’s office in Washington DC to appeal to U.S. politicians. What Onaga tried to do, however, was beyond his authority. Construction of a Marine Corps airfield is about national defense policy, in which a local government has no part of. After Onaga’s death in 2018, Denny Tamaki, whose father was a U.S. military officer whom he never met, took over All Okinawa, succeeded as governor and its activity intensified. Tamaki filed a law suit against the Japanese government on legality of Henoko airfield construction. The case went all the way up to the Supreme Court, which stood for the government. Having lost in a legal fight, Tamaki still didn’t give up. Fighting against the government on Henoko took a center stage of his governorship. In the meantime, he paid little attention to shifting geopolitical reality. Chinese military aircraft’s have been regularly violating Japan’s airspace over East China Sea, but he didn’t care. Worse, he showed little interest in improving life of people in Okinawa, especially in his second four years when inflation was reawakened. Okinawa’s per capita income has remained dead last among 47 prefectures in the country. Since the 1972 handover, Japanese government poured in financial resources to Okinawa that had been left behind amid its agony of being a U.S. territory for almost three decades. Tokyo’s Okinawa promotion budget amounted to 6 to 7 % of the prefecture’s economy, The budget, however, has stagnated the last several years as Okinawa under Tamaki became such a nuisance to Tokyo. 

In the meantime, many voters in Okinawa grew sick and tired of anti-Henoko politics and fed up with Governor Tamaki and the leftists who surrounded him. In the February 2026 snap election for the House of Representatives (the lower house), Okinawa voters gave all three seats to candidates who represented the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, a highly unusual outcome for traditionally left-leaning Okinawa. Then a month after the general election, a boat accident off the coast of Henoko killed a 17 year old high school girl who came to Okinawa on a school trip from Kyoto. The ‘cruise’ was a part  of ‘peace education’ program that the prefecture of Okinawa has been promoting for years. As it turned out, the operator of the capsized boat was anti-Henoko airfield activists who had no license to carry passengers. They recklessly left the coast amid high waves and entered a dangerous zone. Japan’s generally left-leaning newspapers and network televisions tried to downplay the accident but an outrage spread through the internet. While no one had been held legally responsible for the accident so far, Governor Tamaki was intensely accused for his association with the group that caused the accident. 

Genta Koja ran for governor in September advocating “The economy rather than (military) bases”. Campaigning on improved life of voters has been common for any candidate anywhere else, but not in Okinawa where ideology has been given a higher priority. Having been born after the 1972 handover, Koja is less tied to the past than past candidates and so are younger voters. His message sounded fresh to voters on the islands, who grew tired of ideology associated with U.S. military bases. Koja defeated incumbent Tamaki winning record 423 thousand votes, by a record margin of 142 thousand votes. Voters aged 60 or older still voted for Tamaki, showing that ideology still mattered to this age group. Younger voters went for Koja overwhelmingly. The issue of bases is going to to be around indefinitely regardless of who the governor is. Then, more voters are more interested in better life than in consuming their energy on ideology. The election was another showcase of the demise of Japan’s left, who has grown increasingly out of step with shifting geopolitical reality. Hopefully, Okinawa’s economy improves. 

About the author: Mr. Suzuki is a retired banker based in Tokyo, Japan.