Pro-U.S. fighters relocation Fukuda wins Iwakuni election

IWAKUNI, Japan,
Feb. 11, 2008

(AP) - (Kyodo)— Yoshihiko Fukuda, supportive of relocating U.S. fighter jets, edged out anti-relocation former Iwakuni Mayor Katsusuke Ihara in the closely fought Iwakuni mayoral election in Yamaguchi Prefecture on Sunday.

The outcome underlined a turnaround in the will of Iwakuni residents, who had voted against the relocation plan for two times -- a referendum in March 2006 and the previous mayoral election the following month.

According to final official returns, Fukuda gained 47,081 votes against Ihara's 45,299.

Fukuda, 37-year-old former House of Representatives member from the Liberal Democratic Party, was assisted by the ruling coalition parties, and his inauguration as a new mayor of Iwakuni is expected to benefit the central government's implementation plans on the realignment of the U.S. military presence in Japan under an agreement with the United States.

The election came after Ihara resigned Dec. 28 after the municipal assembly, which is dominated by supporters of the relocation, repeatedly voted down his budget plan that was aimed at making up for a subsidy the central government has cut on account of his opposition to the relocation.

In a statement issued after the final result, Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba said he "recognizes" Fukuda's victory as "the choice of the Iwakuni citizens" and vowed to hear from the new mayor about his policy on the relocation plan and to "maximize efforts" to obtain his understanding of the city.

"I believe the realignment of U.S. forces must be realized by all means from the standpoint of maintaining deterrence and reducing local burdens across Japan," Ishiba said.

Fukuda aims to lead the financial reconstruction of the city with state subsidies, which are provided to the municipal governments which accept relocation of U.S. forces to their communities, by accepting 59 U.S. carrier-based jet fighters to the U.S. Marine Corps' Iwakuni Air Station from the U.S. Atsugi naval base in Kanagawa Prefecture.

Since the relocation plan is a key item of a 2006 bilateral accord on the realignment of U.S. forces in Japan, the central government has been paying attention to the outcome of the election which may influence other local governments' reactions to the realignment plans, including the most symbolic relocation of U.S. Marines' Futemma Air Station within Okinawa.

Fukuda successfully appealed to Iwakuni voters about the financial benefits of receiving state subsidies and gained support from voters whose priority is one of resurrecting the local economy as the city has more than 100 billion yen in debt.

Ihara vowed to protect Iwakuni from the central government's unilateral ways of promoting the relocation plan. But he failed to stem the turnaround in Iwakuni residents' position.

After serving in the prefectural assembly, Fukuda became the national legislature in September 2005, representing the No. 2 single-seat constituency in Yamaguchi Prefecture that covers Iwakuni.

Since Fukuda resigned as a House of Representatives member to run for the mayoral post, a by-election to fill the lower house seat will be held in April.

Fukuda will serve the remainder of Ihara's term until April 2010.

Although neither of the independent candidates was officially supported or recommended by a political party because they did not ask for such backing.

But the election was effectively a battle between ruling and opposition sides as the LDP and its coalition partner the New Komeito party, assisted Fukuda and the Democratic Party of Japan and two other opposition parties -- the Japanese Communist Party and the Social Democratic Party -- helped Ihara.