Genta Koja wins the Okinawa governorship, unseating Denny Tamaki

13 September 2026

Genta Koja, a former deputy mayor of Naha backed by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, has won the Okinawa gubernatorial election.
He took 59 per cent of the vote and defeated the two-term incumbent, Denny Tamaki, who is 66.
The result was announced the day after the Sunday poll.
The election turned on the plan to move United States Marines out of the Futenma air base to a new facility at Henoko on Okinawa's main island.
Tamaki had opposed that relocation and his administration had pursued legal steps against it.
Koja supports the move, so more than a decade of the prefecture's opposition to the United States military build-up is expected to end.
Okinawa lies in what military planners call the first island chain, which is why its governorship carries national weight.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's party had campaigned for Koja.