Naha – Genta Koja won Sunday’s gubernatorial election in Japan’s southernmost prefecture of Okinawa, bringing a Liberal Democratic Party-backed governor back to the post for the first time in 12 years.
The 42-year-old former vice mayor of Naha, Okinawa’s capital, was up against 66-year-old Denny Tamaki, who had sought a third term as Okinawa governor, and four other candidates.
Koja takes a position accepting the relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps’ Futenma air base in Ginowan to the Henoko district in Nago, another city in Okinawa.