The outgoing governor of this southern archipelago of Japan is well placed to win the local elections on Sunday. Denny Tamaki, who is not the favorite of the central government, embodies local hostility to American bases, one of the points of tension on Tokyo.
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White and green polo, rainbow mask and white gloves, Denny Tamaki is smiling. Outgoing governor of Okinawa, an archipelago of southern Japan, leaves favorite to keep his headquarters during the election, scheduled for Sunday, September 11. The Métis born of a Father GI and a resident of Okinawa, radio host, militant for peace and former deputy, should keep the head of the southernmost department in Japan, and thus inflict a camouflet on the Japanese central government, Who supports his first opponent, Atsushi Sakima.
In the meantime, the dashing sixty -something parade in Uruma, his hometown, flanked by banners displaying his slogan: “For a warm society, in the mind of Okinawa, which leaves no one to fall”. Candidate of the “All Okinawa” coalition bringing together Democrats, Communists, Environmental NGOs and part of the local business world, Tamaki hammers his wish to promote women, to protect the environment and, above all, to see “Okinawa remain a island of peace “.
What to irritate the central government because “denny”, as its supporters affectionately call it, remains determined to stop the move of the US Futenma Marines base, currently in the city of Ginowan, to a site fitted out on a Polder under construction at the tip of Henoko, north of Okinawa.
“Nothing has changed”
This operation, negotiated by Tokyo and Washington in 2006, continues against the backdrop of growing tensions with China around Taiwan. The maneuvers launched by Beijing in August after the visit to the “rebellious” island at China of the president of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, has empiped in the exclusive economic zone of Japan. Beijing did not hesitate to pull a salvo from missiles which fell not far from Yonaguni, the west island west of the archipelago and part of Okinawa. For Tokyo, there is no question, in this context, of renouncing the move of Futenma. Japan even wants to strengthen the defense of Okinawa.
Now Futenma remains a point of tension for the local population, which sees it as the expression of the contempt for central power for a department which represents 0.6 % of the Japanese territory but houses 70 % of the American bases of the archipelago. “The government does not care. The basic problem dates from the Second World War and nothing has changed,” storm Hiroji Yamashiro, tireless pacifist militant crossing at the canvas and wood erected in Henoko by opponents of the transfer. “We are concerned about tensions with China. But the central government does not respect the will of the people of Okinawa. We want a fair distribution of the burden of the American bases,” adds Kenichi Moriyama, English teacher supporting “Denny”.
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