In the House of Representatives general election held on December 14, the Japanese Communist Party increased its number of seats to 21 from its pre-election strength of eight. The JCP won a single-seat constituency in Okinawa where the party staged its fight in collaboration with all anti-U.S. military base forces. Okinawans defeated all Liberal Democratic Party candidates who supported the base construction and ran for the single-seat constituencies in the prefecture.
The outgoing Okinawa governor approved two out of four applications regarding the ongoing reclamation project at Henoko for a new U.S. base, contributing to facilitating the landfill work.