NAHA, Japan, Nov. 28 (UPI) -- Okinawa voters Sunday re-elected Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima, who is pushing to remove a U.S. Marine base from the Japanese prefecture.
Nakaima had once supported a U.S.-Japan deal to move Marine Corps Air Station Futenma to a less populated part of the island, but reversed himself in the face of popular opposition, The New York Times reported.
Nakaima has urged the government to distribute American bases more evenly across the country.
"Okinawa hosts American troops not for itself, but for the whole of Japan," he said Sunday. "So the whole of Japan must search for a solution to Futenma's relocation."
His main opponent, Yoichi Iha, wants the base, and all others, transferred out of Japan altogether.
Any relocation of the base within Okinawa will require Nakaima's approval.
Okinawa residents have long complained that the presence of about 25,000 American troops brings increased crime, pollution and noise to the islands.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan has called the American military presence in Okinawa a vital deterrent against threats such as North Korea.
