Japan's Okinawa 'votes against' controversial US base move: exit polls

Voters on the Japanese island of Okinawa have rejected the relocation of a controversial US military base, according to exit polls from a non-binding referendum cited by local media Sunday.

It was not immediately clear whether sufficient numbers of opponents had turned out to meet the threshold required for Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki to "respect" the result of the symbolic referendum.

For this to happen, one quarter of the eligible electorate -- or around 290,000 people -- had to vote for one of the three options: for or against relocation or a third choice of "neither."
Speaking after casting her ballot at a local school, voter Yuki Miyagaki said: "They are using a lot of tax money and manpower for this referendum, even though the result will not have any legal power. So we thought that we should take this opportunity and think very carefully about this issue."
"The government is making a fool out of Okinawa."