EDITORIAL: Nago mayoral election

In Sunday's mayoral election in Nago, Okinawa Prefecture, voters elected Susumu Inamine, a new face who campaigned against the plan to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma to the Henoko district of the city.

The base relocation plan is a matter of national security, so it is the responsibility of the central government to make a final decision.

However, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama cannot but take the election result seriously. He has talked about not only the gravity of the Japan-U.S. agreement, but also about his intention to honor the will of the Okinawan people.

Hatoyama has promised the nation and Washington that he will resolve the relocation issue by the end of May. So now his tough task is finding a new relocation site.

The coalition parties of the Hatoyama administration are continuing their discussions on prospective sites other than Henoko.

At the same time, the government has not ruled out the possibility of reverting back to the four-year-old Japan-U.S. agreement to relocate the Futenma air station to Henoko.

But Inamine's victory has made that option extremely difficult to choose.

Okinawa Governor Hirokazu Nakaima, who has accepted the relocation to Henoko, will also find himself in a difficult position. The election result has prompted the prefectural assembly to move toward a unanimous resolution, with approval of members of the Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito, to demand the Futenma air station be relocated outside the prefecture.

In the election, Nago residents were required to make a tough decision.

Incumbent Yoshikazu Shimabukuro, who was in favor of the relocation to Henoko, underlined his achievements during his four-year term and tried to avoid making the base relocation a campaign issue. In contrast, Inamine took the issue up front and center, promising that he would not allow construction of a new base in the sea off Henoko.

Nago residents do not want to host the base when they consider the risks of noise pollution, crimes and accidents.

However, the deterioration of the local economy, underscored by higher jobless rates, is extremely serious. Some residents must have pinned their hopes on public works projects in connection with the construction of the base as well as regional development measures in return for accepting the relocation plan.

It has been more than a decade since Nago was floated as a possible relocation site for the Futenma air station. In the last three mayoral elections, the candidates supporting the relocation won. This is the first time that voters against the base have outnumbered those willing to accept the base in exchange for local development measures.

The shift in the voters' opinions was apparently encouraged by last year's regime change led by the Democratic Party of Japan, which had called for relocating the Futenma base to either outside the prefecture or outside the nation.

This places an extremely heavy responsibility on Hatoyama as he must take in the voters' will expressed in the election.

The task force of the government and the ruling coalition will consider substitute relocation plans put forth by each party. A Self-Defense Forces base in another prefecture in Kyushu and an outlying Okinawa island have been floated as relocation sites.

Another possible option would be to split up the base functions and move them separately, instead of sticking to the idea of relocating all base functions to one location.

At any rate, the Hatoyama administration must persuade local governments to accept the base and win the approval of the U.S. government. This will be a considerably tough job.

Hatoyama must find a solution for the conundrum of how to widely share the burden of hosting military bases among the entire nation.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Jan. 25