Gubernatorial election starts in Okinawa, focusing on US base

NAHA (Xinhua) - Gubernatorial election in Japan's southernmost island prefecture of Okinawa kicked off on Sunday with a focus on candidates' policy toward whether or not to relocate a key US airbase within the prefecture.

Current Governor Hirokazu Nakaima, 75, runs for his third term but it is a tough election for him as he changed his opposition against the US Futenma airbase relocation plan and approved a landfill project for a replacement in the prefecture's Nago city for the Futenma airbase last December.

Anti-US-airbase sentiment is deep in Okinawa that holds a bulk of US military bases in Japan, out of safety and noise concerns, and the majority of Okinawans oppose the relocation plan that is reached between the United States and the Japanese central government.

Crimes such as rape and trespass by US military servicemen are often headlined in Okinawa.

Nakaima's main rival is 64-year-old former Naha Mayor Takeshi Onaga who gains supports from opposition parties like the Japanese Communist Party and the Social Democratic Party due to his anti- relocation stance.

Local polls showed that Onaga took a leading position during the election campaign among other three candidates, namely the current governor Nakaima, former upper house lawmaker Shokichi Kina, 66, and Mikio Simoji, a 53-year-old former state minister in charge of postal privatization.