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Sunday, January 24, 2010

Anti-base Inamine Wins Nago Election 名護市長選英語メディア報道

Note:
I started this post by listing the English-language reports of the Nago election result, and I am still adding - not just immediate reports but subsequent analyses.

Latest addition: Wall Street Journal, January 25


Final Ballots:

Inamine Susumu 17,950

Shimabukuro Yoshikazu 16,362

I will update reports in English here.

Japan Times (Kyodo):
Base foe Inamine to be next Nago mayor
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20100125a1.html

MSNBC (AP):
Okinawa town elects mayor against U.S. base
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35045784/ns/world_news-asiapacific/

NHK World:
Inamine wins Nago Mayoral election
http://www.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/25_02.html

Financial Times:
Okinawa poll boost for opponents of US base
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/fffed256-08f3-11df-ba88-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1

BBC:
Japan 'to rethink US military presence' after poll
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8478070.stm

The Economist (not a report of the election, but a sober analysis written ten days ago, which I found while searching for the news):
The New Battle of Okinawa
http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15271146

The Wall Street Journal:
Japan Vote for New Mayor Threatens Base
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704375604575022792126682452.html
Okinawa Upset
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703808904575024411326468010.html

New York Times:
Mayor-Elect Of Okinawa Opposes U.S. Base
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/25/world/asia/25okinawa.html?emc=eta1

Washington Post:
Mayor's election in Okinawa is setback for U.S. air base move
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/24/AR2010012401450.html
Future of Okinawa base strains U.S.-Japanese alliance
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/23/AR2010012302392.html

My comment to WP:
If the pro-base candidate had won, the pro-base media would argue that the Nago residents approved the Henoko base construction. Now that the anti-base candidate has won, those media say the local election can't decide or shouldn't influence the national security decision. Let's go back to the basic. Why would only Japan need III MEF where NO OTHER COUNTRY needs it? Japan does not need IIIMEF to stay, and the US knows that. Check the details of the Guam Integrated Military Development plan. Plans are already underway to move most of the Marines from Okinawa to Guam. Military colonization of Guam is another problem we must address, but one thing that is absolutely clear is that there is no substitute facility needed in Japan when Futenma is returned to the people of Okinawa.

Read these:

Why Build a New Base on Okinawa When the Marines are Relocating to Guam?: Okinawa Mayor Challenges Japan and the US
http://www.japanfocus.org/-Iha-Yoichi/3287

Japanese Bureaucrats Hide Decision to Move All US Marines out of Okinawa to Guam
http://www.japanfocus.org/-Tanaka-Sakai/3274

3 comments:

  1. Anonymous5:01 pm

    The Washington Post's coverage of the Futenma/Henoko/Takae issue has all ben biased. It might as well be a mouthpiece for the Japan Lobby that has convinced Washington that the base is necessary.

    The only reason for the base that some Japanese construction companies (supported by the LDP) want the construction contracts. These are the same kinds of companies that have built the "roads to nowhere" in Japan.

    Is this reporter even based in
    This is what economist Dean Baker, of Center For Economic and Policy, says about The Washington Post: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/01/04-13

    "The Washington Post is a newspaper with a proud legacy. It has done much important reporting over the years, most famously its coverage of the Watergate scandal that resulted in the resignation of Richard Nixon. Unfortunately, it seems to have abandoned its journalistic standards. In its last issue of the decade, it published as a news piece an article by the Peter Peterson Foundation-funded Fiscal Times. This compromised the Post's journalistic integrity to the extent that readers can no longer take it seriously.

    "Peter Peterson is a Wall Street billionaire and former Nixon administration cabinet member who has been trying to gut social security payments and Medicare for at least the last quarter of a century...

    "This is not the first time that the WP has been prepared to compromise its integrity to rescue its finances. Last year the Post's top management planned a series of dinners, billed as 'salons' where they had intended to sell lobbyists the opportunity to meet with the WP's reporters in an informal setting. This plan was nixed after it was leaked and the idea developed into a scandal."

    If he wants to conduct fair and balanced journalism, the WP reporter in Japan really needs to report on the transnational campaign regarding the endangered dugong and the fact that the base is going to destroy a coral reef. These essential facts are left out of WP reports which sound like Japanese Lobby position papers.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I feel enraged having watched
    the NHK news on TV Japan 5 minutes ago(10 PM here - 3 PM on Jan 25 in
    Japan) in which Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirano was saying there was no reason to "shinshaku" 斟
    酌 the result of Nago Election to the government's final decision.
    Governments use those big words that ordinary people probably hear once or twice in their life time when they want to say something that they don't want people to understand. He practically said 民意をくみ取る必要はないー no need to listen to people's voices. I argue this statement is unconstitutional.

    http://mainichi.jp/select/seiji/news/20100125k0000e010049000c.html

    Again, would he have said the same thing if the election result were
    opposite? And what a wicked use of that phrase "ゼロベース zero-base." They mean by that "Henoko is still an option," where it should really mean seeking all possibilities from a scratch. How many of the people, especially elders, understand such a baffling phrase?

    At least Hatoyama said he heard the "min-i" - people's voices.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Today SDP and PNP stood up against Hirano's statement and said people's voices must be heard and respected. It is good to have that check-and-balance system within the new government.

    ReplyDelete