With Okinawa's Nov. 17 gubernatorial election looming, voters are gauging the progress made during the first term of Gov. Keiichi Inamine in addressing local concerns over the concentration of U.S. military bases and efforts to boost the prefecture's economy.
The campaign, which officially kicks off Thursday, is seen as a vote of confidence in the 69-year-old Inamine.
In light of the 30th anniversary this year of Okinawa's reversion from U.S. rule, it is also a vote on three decades of national government policy on Okinawa, which still suffers from a variety of problems despite its increasing strategic importance within the bilateral security arrangement.