Voters in Japan’s Okinawa re-elected Denny Tamaki as governor on Sunday, public broadcaster NHK and other media said, backing an independent candidate who wants a smaller U.S. military footprint on the chain of islands near Taiwan.
Okinawa prefecture is far closer to Taiwan than to Tokyo, putting it front and centre to growing tension in the region.
China this summer launched five missiles into the sea close to Okinawa, and within Japan’s exclusive economic zone, during military exercises after U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own.
The son of a U.S. Marine and a Japanese mother, he was first elected as governor four years ago when he campaigned against U.S. military presence. This time, he focused more on the economy, after the pandemic battered Okinawa’s tourism industry….