Okinawa Gov. Takeshi Onaga died on Wednesday, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned. He was 67 years old.
Vice Gov. Kiichiro Jahana had announced earlier on the day that he had taken over Onaga's official duties, as Onaga had fallen into a state of disordered consciousness due to cancer.
After undergoing surgery for pancreatic cancer, Onaga was discharged from the hospital on May 15 and resumed his official duties. However, he had been hospitalized since July 30 at a facility in Urasoe in the prefecture, Jahana said.
The cancer had metastasized to his liver, the vice governor quoted Onaga's doctor as saying. Jahana also said that Onaga's state of disordered consciousness was attributed to compromised liver and kidney functions.
Attention had been focused on whether Onaga would run in the gubernatorial election in November, as his first term was to end in December. On July 27, he announced a decision to start procedures to withdraw the prefecture's approval of land reclamation off the Henoko district in Nago, the location to which the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station is planned to be relocated.
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