NAHA, Okinawa: Citing exit polls, public broadcaster NHK and other media outlets have declared Denny Tamaki re-elected as governor of Japan's Okinawa prefecture.

Tamaki, an independent candidate, said he will seek a smaller U.S. military footprint on the chain of islands near Taiwan.

Supported by a coalition of opposition parties, Tamaki's re-election is a sign of pushback against Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's ruling Liberal Democratic Party, which has been hit by a scandal over its ties to the Unification Church, which critics call a cult.

Close to Taiwan, Okinawa is at the forefront of growing tension in the region.

During military exercises after U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own, China launched five missiles into the sea close to Okinawa and within Japan's exclusive economic zone.

The son of a U.S. Marine and a Japanese mother, Tamaki campaigned against U.S. military bases after he was first elected governor four years ago, but he is focusing more on the economy after Okinawa's tourism industry was damaged by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I have not wavered one millimeter, nor will I, in my efforts to resolve the base issue and I will continue to share my thoughts with the people of the prefecture and seek a solution from the government," he said.

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party's approval ratings plunged after revelations about the links
between a number of its lawmakers and the Unification Church.

Kishida apologized for his party's ties to the church and vowed to win back public trust, but a planned state funeral for slain former premier Shinzo Abe, who delivered a speech at an event hosted by a church affiliate last year, has fanned the backlash.

"The governor's re-election was expected, but the issues at stake were not only bases," said Hiroshi Shiratori, a professor of political science at Hosei University in Tokyo, as reported by Reuters.

Abe's funeral and the Unification Church scandal played a role, he added.