The government and Okinawa Prefecture met at the prime minister's office on November 6 for the first session in 13 years of a council on reducing the US base burden and promoting the local economy, a reset that the LDP's own meeting the same day nearly wrecked.
The Okinawa Policy Council — known in Japanese as Okinawa Seikyō — brings the two sides together on base-hosting costs and economic development. It reconvened after the LDP-backed Genta Kojō won September's gubernatorial election, giving the party a conservative prefectural government for the first time in 12 years.
Then the party meeting, held after the council with Kojō attending, broke down into shouting. The trigger was the treatment of Mikio Shimoji, a former postal privatization minister and former lower house member, who could not attend the council session.
“Protesting to Chairman Nishimura in that old-fashioned way, like a joint signature letter, does nothing for Okinawa!”Munenori Suzuki, LDP member of the House of Councillors
How Shimoji came to stand down
September's race came down in practice to Kojō and three-term incumbent Denny Tamaki. Early polling had Kojō struggling, and the party headquarters moved just before the campaign.
Shimoji, who had planned to run, signed an agreement on Okinawa promotion measures with Secretary-General Shunichi Suzuki and election strategy chief Yasutoshi Nishimura. He announced two days before the election was formally declared that he would not run, and threw his support behind Kojō.
The deal was struck over the head of the LDP's Okinawa prefectural chapter. Munenori Suzuki was the one who took the headquarters' request and handled the arrangements.
Kojō went on to win by roughly 147,000 votes.
A job offer, and a letter of protest
After Kojō took office, local media reported in succession that Shimoji, having stood down, would be appointed to a senior post such as Cabinet Office adviser. Nishimura did not deny the appointment, according to reports.
The prefectural chapter pushed back. It sent a document to Nishimura and other headquarters figures opposing any senior government post for Shimoji.
“Appointing him to a government position risks seriously damaging our party's organizational unity in Okinawa and the trust of prefectural residents, and from the standpoint that it cannot possibly be tolerated, we strongly oppose it.”LDP Okinawa prefectural chapter, letter of protest to party headquarters
The letter obtained by AERA carried the signatures of four LDP lower house members elected from Okinawa and 23 prefectural assembly members. That is what Munenori Suzuki meant by a joint signature letter.