{"id":1939,"date":"2026-04-09T20:59:29","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T20:59:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/1939\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T20:59:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T20:59:29","slug":"what-next-for-okinawas-anti-base-alliance-after-japan-election-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/1939\/","title":{"rendered":"What next for Okinawa\u2019s anti-base alliance after Japan election loss?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The broad anti-base alliance that has shaped Okinawa\u2019s politics for nearly a decade is reeling after a bruising election defeat, raising questions about the future of organised resistance to the US military presence on Japan<\/a>\u2019s southernmost islands.All Okinawa \u2013 a coalition of opposition parties and civic groups that backs Governor Denny Tamaki and campaigns to curb the US military footprint in the prefecture \u2013 failed to win a single one of Okinawa\u2019s four single-seat constituencies in the February 8 lower house election<\/a>.Instead, all four seats went to candidates from Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi<\/a>\u2019s ruling Liberal Democratic Party. Ruing the movement\u2019s defeat at a press conference the following day, Tamaki blamed the outcome on \u201cthe sudden gust of the Takaichi whirlwind\u201d.<\/p>\n

All Okinawa brings together a broad spectrum of opposition forces, including the local branches of the Japanese Communist Party, the Social Democratic Party and the Okinawa Social Mass Party.<\/p>\n

The groups are united by a pledge to halt construction of a new US military facility in the coastal district of Henoko \u2013 planned as a replacement for the US Marine Corps\u2019 Futenma air station \u2013 and to reduce the burden placed on the prefecture by the heavy concentration of American forces.<\/p>\n

Ahead of the vote, members of the alliance \u2013 known locally as \u201cOkinawa zenken\u201d \u2013 had voiced cautious optimism. The scale of the subsequent setback has since prompted debate over whether the movement is losing its hold on voters, and why.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The broad anti-base alliance that has shaped Okinawa\u2019s politics for nearly a decade is reeling after a bruising…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[2245,2246,674,676,8,2239,2240,2244,162,2241,358,2243,2247,2242,52],"class_list":["post-1939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-okinawa","tag-all-okinawa","tag-byron-fija","tag-futenma","tag-henoko","tag-japan","tag-japanese-communist-party","tag-liberal-democratic-party","tag-michael-cucek","tag-okinawa","tag-okinawa-social-mass-party","tag-sanae-takaichi","tag-sankei-shimbun","tag-social-democratic-party","tag-temple-university","tag-tokyo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}