 Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama (16 September 2009 – 2 June 2010) opposed the base facility, but his tenure was short and his campaign promise to close the base was not fulfilled.The subsequent ministers acted as clients for the United States, while in 2013 Shinzō Abe and Barack Obama affirmed their commitment to build the new base, regardless of the local protests.The relocation was approved by Okinawa's governor in 2014, but the governor of the prefecture, Takeshi Onaga (who died in 2018), completely opposed the military base's presence.