The upcoming mayoral election in Nago, Okinawa Prefecture, is posing a problem for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his Liberal Democratic Party because two conservative candidates who favor its policies in the prefecture want to run, which could split the vote.
If both decide to run against incumbent Susumu Inamine in the January election, both will likely fail, stalling yet again the central government's effort to replace U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma with a planned new air base in Nago farther north on Okinawa Island.
Inamine, 68, was elected in 2010 by demanding that the Futenma base be closed and no replacement be built in the prefecture. But the two candidates — former Mayor Yoshikazu Shimabukuro, 67, and former Vice Mayor Bunshin Suematsu, 65, are believed to back the government's Nago base plan.