New Chapter of Saga

Another challenge against the government rose up from Western Japan. Newly elected Governor of Saga, Yoshinori Yamaguchi, announced that he would review the plan of deploying transportation helicopter, MV-22 Osprey, to Saga Airport in his first day of the office. The national government was stalled for a while and started offending yamaguchi. Following the trouble in Okinawa, Shinzo Abe administration again missed appropriate handling of relationship with a local community, caused by lack of communication.

Yamaguchi was elected in the election last Sunday, fulfilling former governor, Yasushi Furukawa, who accepted deployment of Osprey, which Ground Self-defense force would introduce in FY 2015, just before his stepping down and running for the election of the House of Representatives last november. “Saga Prefecture is working for accepting Osprey,” Furukawa unequivocally said. He is well-known as supporter of Abe, willing to resume nuclear reactors for power generation.

Yamaguchi was not a candidate who would succeed Furukawa. Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito supported another candidate against Yamaguchi. Although those leading parties had firm political organization in the region, people in Saga raised Yamaguchi, protesting agricultural reforming policy of Abe administration. Yamaguchi is confident in his popularity and willing to oppose national unilateral policy.

Yamaguchi showed his determination to assess the policy once his predecessor accepted. “I do not swallow it. This problem is not something that can be solved with simple yes or no. It is necessary to reconfirm how they will be deployed with what kind of plan, and to find out the consequence of it,” told Yamaguchi. Osprey is highly unpopular in Japan as less safe aircraft. People in Okinawa protested the deployment of Osprey to Futenma Marine Airbase in 2013.

The officers of Abe administration were shocked by Yamaguchi’s challenging attitude. Chief Cabinet Secretary, Yoshihide Suga, firstly showed soft attitude, requiring further communication with Saga, but it turned to be hard one, showing no possibility of changing the plan for Osprey deployment. The national government already included related spending in FY 2015 budget request.

The failure of Abe administration was clear when LDP lost the gubernatorial election, in which it tried to plant its favorite person as Governor of Saga. Although Abe perhaps needed to recognize his defeat and listen to the local voices, he rejected it. As long as Abe believes in dictatorial power of central government, Saga will gradually be another Okinawa, where the people firmly distrust national government.