The Japanese and U.S. governments waged an unsuccessful furtive campaign to support a conservative pro-Washington politician in the first public election in 1968 for the head of the Ryukyu government, or Okinawa, while it was still under U.S. rule, according to newly declassified diplomatic documents.
Shortly before the contest, Tokyo and Washington unveiled a bilateral accord to grant the people of Okinawa the right to vote in national Japanese elections, which residents had long pushed for, presenting the deal as though it had been the initiative of candidate Junji Nishime, the local chapter head of the Liberal Democratic Party.
Despite this backing, Nishime was defeated by the opposition-backed Chobyo Yara, who sought the immediate reversion of Okinawa to Japan without precondition.