国际英语新闻：U.S. base opponent wins mayoral election in Okinawa

TOKYO, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- A mayoral election in Nago, Okinawa Prefecture, was won on Sunday by Susumu Inamine, an opponent of U. S. forces remaining in the area, upping pressure on the governing Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) to renegotiate a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) signed with the United States in 2006, according to local media projections.

Inamine beat incumbent Nago Mayor Yoshikazu Shimabukuro, who in his campaign said he would be willing to accept the future relocation of U.S. troops to another place within Okinawa Prefecture. Under a SOFA agreement signed by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the administration of President George W. Bush, tens of thousands of U.S. troops were set to remain in the prefecture for the foreseeable future.

In a campaign that saw the DPJ win a landslide in August last year, the party campaigned on a platform that included making relations with the U.S. more "equal" and reconsidering the 2006 SOFA agreement.

Nago was expected to be one of the sites to which U.S. troops were moved under the agreement.

Inamine, an independent, was supported by the governing coalition of the DPJ, Social Democratic Party (SDP) and People's New Party (PNP) in his campaign. Shimabukuro was supported by the LDP, and had rejected offers from the party to have senior members visit the prefecture to campaign on his behalf.

The result will prove to be another headache for a DPJ suffering after a scandal involving senior lawmaker Ichiro Ozawa. Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama will now have to negotiate with Washington in the knowledge that voters within the prefecture have rejected the plan to have U.S. troops relocated there.

The renegotiation of the SOFA agreement has proved to be a thorny issue that has strained relations between the U.S. and Japan. Hatoyama has promised to resolve the issue by May, and will now likely have to look for a different site to which American troops can be relocated.