Denny Tamaki

is a Japanese politician who has served as the Governor of Okinawa Prefecture since 2018. Tamaki was a member of the Okinawa Prefectural Assembly for Okinawa City from 2002 to 2005 and became the first Amerasian member of the Japanese House of Representatives as the representative for Okinawa Prefecture's 3rd district from 2009 to 2012 and 2014 to 2018. Tamaki was elected governor as an independent in the 2018 Okinawa gubernatorial election following the untimely death of Governor Takeshi Onaga. He was re-elected again in 2022.

Early life was born on 13 October 1959 in Yonashiro (now part of Uruma), Okinawa under American civil administration to an Okinawan mother and an American father who was a member of the U.S. Marine Corps and left Okinawa before he was born. Tamaki changed his legal name to at 10 years of age, with Denny (デニー, Denī) being a nickname kept since childhood. Tamaki has never met his father, and his mother remained single throughout his youth and destroyed most materials related to his father. Although Tamaki rarely discusses his American background, he describes himself as embodying Okinawa's predicament as a host for United States military personnel.

Tamaki left Okinawa to attend a trade school in Tokyo and returned afterward, working as a radio disc jockey for several years. Tamaki won the 2018 Okinawa gubernatorial election with 55% of the vote. Tamaki defeated Atsushi Sakima, a candidate supported by the Liberal Democratic Party. The election drew the attention of the national LDP, with national political figures such as Yoshihide Suga, Toshihiro Nikai and Shinjiro Koizumi traveling to Okinawa to campaign for Sakima.

On September 11, 2022, Tamaki was re-elected to serve another four-year term as governor, defeating Sakima a second time.

Positions Tamaki has long been opposed to the U.S. military presence on Okinawa. In 2009, Tamaki called for a sharp reduction in American troop strength on Okinawa, stating that "it's about time the Japanese government let Okinawa go back to its original self" and "we need to wean our economy from its dependence on the bases." This position was the major focus of his 2018 gubernatorial campaign, in which he argued against the relocation of Marine Corps Air Station Futenma to another location on Okinawa, a position consistent with his late predecessor Onaga. The base relocation was the most important issue for voters in the 2018 election, according to an Asahi Shimbun exit poll. Tamaki responded by taking back his statement and expressed that he was misunderstood.

Following a COVID-19 outbreak in the prefecture's US bases in 2020, Tamaki criticized the American military, expressing deep regret and doubt concerning the bases' ability to stop the spread of the virus, which at the time had already infected over 61 personnel. He cited possible sources of the outbreak, including off-base military parties on July 4, which had high risks of community spread.

Personal life Tamaki is married with two sons and two daughters. He is a singer and guitarist, and has written lyrics for Rinken Band.