As the top elected official on Japan¡¯s tiny ¡°front-line¡± island of Yonaguni ¡ª just 110 kilometers from Taiwan ¡ª Kenichi Itokazu isn¡¯t your typical small-town mayor.
Elected head of the Okinawan island¡¯s local government in 2021, he¡¯s been charged with ensuring the livelihood and security of its residents amid rising fears over the possibility of a war between communist China and democratic Taiwan, a conflict that some say would inevitably draw in Japan and the United States.
These responsibilities, he says, have at times left him as the odd man out in a prefecture long wary of both the heavy U.S. military and Self-Defense Forces presence there.
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