Masahide Ota is a Ryukyuan academic and politician who served as governor of Okinawa prefecture

Okinawa Prefecture

is one of Japan's southern prefectures. It consists of hundreds of the Ryukyu Islands in a chain over long, which extends southwest from Kyūshū to Taiwan. Okinawa's capital, Naha, is located in the southern part of Okinawa Island...

 in the 1990s.

Ota was educated at Waseda University

Waseda University

, abbreviated as , is one of the most prestigious private universities in Japan and Asia. Its main campuses are located in the northern part of Shinjuku, Tokyo. Founded in 1882 as Tokyo Senmon Gakko, the institution was renamed "Waseda University" in 1902. It is known for its liberal climate...

, Tokyo

Tokyo

, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

, and Syracuse University

Syracuse University

Syracuse University is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York, United States. Its roots can be traced back to Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832, which also later founded Genesee College...

, New York. He served successively as a Professor of Social Science, and Dean of the Faculty of Law and Letters in the University of the Ryūkyūs

University of the Ryukyus

The , abbreviated to Ryūdai , is a national university of Japan. It is located in the town of Nishihara on Okinawa Honto in Okinawa Prefecture. There are also campuses in Nakagusuku and Ginowan. It is the westernmost national university of Japan and the largest public university in Okinawa Prefecture...

, specialising in modern and contemporary Okinawan society. He has written many books on Okinawa, of which the best known is his account of the Battle of Okinawa

Battle of Okinawa

The Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg, was fought on the Ryukyu Islands of Okinawa and was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific War of World War II. The 82-day-long battle lasted from early April until mid-June 1945...

 of 1945 as he saw it as a high school student at the time.

In March 1990 Ota retired from the university and in November of the same year was elected governor of Okinawa prefecture on a non-party platform but with broadly leftist support. He had a distinguished record as a governor, outspokenly arguing for the interests of the Okinawan people against both the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 military establishment in the Ryukyu Islands

Ryukyu Islands

The , also known as the , is a chain of islands in the western Pacific, on the eastern limit of the East China Sea and to the southwest of the island of Kyushu in Japan. From about 1829 until the mid 20th century, they were alternately called Luchu, Loochoo, or Lewchew, akin to the Mandarin...

 and the Japanese central government. However, after serving two four-year terms, he was defeated in a further re-election bid in 1998 by Keiichi Inamine, the candidate for the Liberal Democratic Party

Liberal Democratic Party (Japan)

The , frequently abbreviated to LDP or , is a centre-right political party in Japan. It is one of the most consistently successful political parties in the democratic world. The LDP ruled almost continuously for nearly 54 years from its founding in 1955 until its defeat in the 2009 election...

which dominates Japanese national politics.