Political Geographic Research on the Relationships between Social Movement and Voting Behaviors in Postwar Okinawa

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Using the Okinawa Times, this research extracted approximately 1400 cases of collective actions (i.e. protest action events) taking place in Okinawa from 1949-2000 and constructed the database in which each event was coded. By quantitatively analyzing the database and qualitatively comparing with the contents of declarations and resolutions addressed on such occasions as political rallies, this research attempted to explore not only the historical but also the geographical contexts in which such events occurred. Furthermore, it was examined with the quantitative methods using socio-economic indexes how the development of the social movements thus grasped was related to the spatial patterns of Okinawans'voting behaviors, reformist votes in particular, as their another political channel.As a result, according to the geopolitical and geo-economic contexts over Okinawa, Okinawan social movements developed as the popular movements over territory, sovereignty, and the application of the Japa … More nese Constitution before the 1972 reversion and as the reformist movements appealing for anti-war pacifism and against U.S.military bases after the reversion. It was also found that the poplar election for the chief executive of the Government of the Ryukyu Islands immediately before the reversion made protest actions against the U.S.military presence manifest as the voting behaviors for reformist parties and candidates. On the other hand, as conservative parties were organized as a camp that supported the Japanese and U.S. governments that wished to maintain the U.S.military presence in Okinawa, conservative votes increased in the localities dependent on the military base economy and the public work investment based on state subsidies. It can be understood that these political geographic conflicts between the conservative and reformist camps within Okinawan society have contributed to the continuation of the U.S.military bases and the Japan-U.S. security arrangements. However, judging from recent trends such as the fragmentation and localization of social movements and the overall conservatization of Okinawan politics, it can be predicted that Okinawan regional protest against the Tokyo politics will became weaker than the forces integrating Okinawa into the state. Less