Okinawa governor-elect Koja wins record 400,000-plus votes
NAHA, Japan (Kyodo) -- Okinawa's election board said Genta Koja, who won Sunday's gubernatorial election against incumbent Denny Tamaki, received more
Genta Koja, the candidate who emerged victorious in Sunday's Okinawa gubernatorial election, secured more than 400,000 votes, a record-breaking total for the prefecture. This marks the first time a gubernatorial candidate in Okinawa has garnered over 400,000 votes, surpassing the previous record set by incumbent Denny Tamaki in 2018.
Koja's win was not limited to specific municipalities; he received the most votes in all of them except one village. The Okinawa election board reported a voter turnout of 61.57 percent, an increase of 3.65 percentage points compared to the 2022 election. A significant number of voters, 347,171, participated in early voting, accounting for nearly half of the 717,714 voters who took part in the gubernatorial election.
Koja's support came from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and other conservative groups, while Tamaki, serving his second four-year term as governor, was backed by the All Okinawa group, which opposes the relocation of a controversial U.S. base in the prefecture.
Written by urgent.news from The Mainichi's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
