A conservative candidate on Sunday won the mayoral election in Okinawa Island's Ginowan City, the site of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma. The election was held after the head of the Okinawa Defense Bureau made a controversial pre-election move in connection with the relocation of Futenma's functions to less-populated Henoko in the north of the island.
Irrespective of the election result, the central government should promptly and severely punish the bureau chief, Mr. Ro Manabe, who on Jan. 23 and 24 improperly lectured 68 bureau workers who reside in Ginowan on the election.
He told them not to abstain from voting and explained the nuanced differences in the stance on the Futenma issue between the two candidates: Mr. Atsushi Sakima, who became the new Ginowan mayor with the support of the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito, and former Ginowan Mayor Mr. Yoichi Iha, supported by the Japan Communist Party, the Social Democratic Party and Okinawa Shakai Taishu-to, a local Okinawan party.