NAGO, Japan (AFP) – Voters on the Japanese island of Okinawa have rejected the relocation of a controversial US military base, according to exit polls from a non-binding referendum cited by local media yesterday.
It was not immediately clear whether or not sufficient numbers of opponents had turned out to meet the threshold required for Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki to ”respect” the result of the symbolic referendum.
For this to happen, one quarter of the eligible electorate – or around 290,000 people – had to vote for one of the three options: for or against relocation or a third choice of ”neither.”
In any case, the vote is non-binding on the central government and turnout appeared to be hovering around 50 percent, raising questions about what effect the referendum will have.
The central government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has vowed to press on with moving the base and the relocation is also backed by Washington.
The ballot asked residents whether or not they supported a plan to reclaim land at a remote coastal site for the relocation of the Futenma base from its current location in a heavily populated part of Okinawa.
It was initially planned as a yes-no vote, but a ”neither” option was added after several cities with close ties to the central government threatened to boycott the vote.
Polls opened early yesterday morning, with about 1.15 million Okinawans eligible to vote.
Speaking after casting her ballot at a local school, voter Yuki Miyagaki said: ”They are using a lot of tax money and manpower for this referendum, even though the result will not have any legal power. So we thought that we should take this opportunity and think very carefully about this issue.”
”We usually shout no to the new base construction. This is a good opportunity to tell the government directly with concrete numbers: ‘No’. This is an important vote,” 32-year-old Narumi Haine told AFP.
Although the referendum is not legally binding, ”it is significant that people in Okinawa can express their will through the vote,” said Jun Shimabukuro, a professor at Ryukyu University in Okinawa.
”It can be a test to gauge if democracy is working in Japan,” Shimabukuro told AFP before voting opened.
The relocation of Futenma to Nago, 50 kilometers away, was first agreed in 1996 as the US sought to calm local anger after US servicemen gang raped a local schoolgirl.
But the plan has long been stalled in part over local opposition.
