Chobin Zukeran

is a Japanese former politician who was the mayor of Nanjō, Okinawa, and a former member of the House of Representatives of Japan, representing Okinawa 4th district (southern Okinawa Island and the Sakishima Islands).

Political career Zukeran defeated Kozaburo Nishime (LDP) and was elected to the House of Representatives in the 2009 Japanese general election, representing Okinawa 4th district.

He is an outspoken proponent of the removal of American bases from Okinawa.

On 2 June 2011, against the DPJ's policy, Zukeran abstained from voting for a vote of no confidence in the Kan Cabinet at the plenary session of the House of Representatives. So DPJ's headquarters imposed a strict warning on Zukeran.

In 2012, he was expelled from DPJ in opposition to the bill to increase consumption tax submitted by the Noda Cabinet. He did not join People's Life First, which was formed by Ichirō Ozawa and others who were also expelled from the DPJ, but continued his activities as an Independent politician.

In the 2012 general election, he ran as an independent in Okinawa 4th district, but was defeated by Nishime (LDP) by a large margin and lost the election.

On January 21, 2018, he was elected mayor of Nanjō, defeating incumbent Keishun Koja by 65 votes with the support of Okinawa Governor Takeshi Onaga and All Okinawa. He took office on 12 February.

He was defeated by 1,689 votes in 2022 with Keishun Koja returning to office.

On October 8, 2025, Zukeran announced that he would not run for the next Nanjō mayoral election.

On 21 January 2026, Zukeran announced that he had joined the SDP and declared that he would run as a SDP candidate in Okinawa 2nd district. Okinawa 2nd district is the constituency of Kunio Arakaki, who left SDP due to a line conflict with the leader Mizuho Fukushima and Fukushima led the candidacy of Zukeran as a stabbing to Arakaki. However, the SDP's Okinawa prefectural branch expressed opposition, saying it had not gone through an organizational decision by the prefectural branch. On January 25, two members of the House of Councillors, Yōichi Iha and Sachika Takara, from Okinawa Prefecture, supported by All Okinawa against the relocation of U.S. military bases, met in Naha City and criticized the SDP's support for Zukeran. Meanwhile, after leaving the SDP, Arakaki joined the Centrist Reform Alliance.

In 2026 general election, in addition to LaSalle Ishii, the deputy leader of the SDP, former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama rushed to support Zukeran's election campaign and again called for opposition to the relocation of the U.S. military base.

Electoral history