宮古島市長に座喜味氏初当選　自公推薦の現職破る―沖縄

　任期満了に伴う沖縄県宮古島市長選は１７日投開票され、無所属新人で元県議の座喜味一幸氏（７１）＝立憲民主、共産、社民推薦＝が、無所属現職の下地敏彦氏（７５）＝自民、公明推薦＝を破り、初当選を果たした。投票率は６５．６４％。
　座喜味氏は元自民県議で、玉城デニー知事を支える「オール沖縄」勢力の支援を受けた。下地氏は、４選を目指したが及ばなかった。前回選で争点となった陸上自衛隊の宮古島配備については、今回２人とも容認の立場だった。
　沖縄県では同市に続き、２月に浦添市、４月にうるま市で市長選が行われる。いずれも来年に控える知事選の前哨戦と位置付けられており、県政奪還を目指す菅政権にとって初戦の敗北は痛手となりそうだ。（2021/01/17-23:52）

A candidate supported by Japan's ruling party has lost to an opposition-backed rival in the first of a series of mayoral elections in Okinawa Prefecture, in a blow to the government of Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga in the run-up to next year's Okinawa gubernatorial election.
   In the mayoral poll in the city of Miyakojima in the southernmost Japan prefecture on Sunday, Kazuyuki Zakimi, 71, an independent supported by the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, the Japanese Communist Party and the Social Democratic Party, defeated incumbent Mayor Toshihiko Shimoji, 75, who also ran as an independent candidate and was backed by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner Komeito.
   Zakimi, set to become Miyakojima mayor for the first time, was also backed by the so-called All Okinawa camp, which supports Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki, a staunch opponent of the Japanese government's plan to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma air base in the Okinawa city of Ginowan to the Henoko coastal district in the city of Nago, also Okinawa.
   While mayoral elections are scheduled in two more cities in Okinawa later this year, in Urasoe in February and in Uruma in April, both also regarded as precursors to the upcoming governor race, the election loss in Miyakojima is believed to have hit hard the Suga administration, which aims to have an LDP-backed candidate win the 2021 gubernatorial election to recapture the Okinawa prefectural administration from Tamaki.
   Voter turnout in the Miyakojima mayoral election came to 65.64 pct.