A gubernatorial election was held on 15 November 1998 to elect the Governor of Okinawa (山口県, Okinawa-ken), who is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan.

• Masahide Ōta, 73, incumbent since 1990, endorsed by SDP, OSMP, JCP, LP and NSP.
• Keiichi Inamine, 65, former vice-governor, backed by LDP, New Okinawa and SPP.
• Mitsuo Matayoshi, 54, a conservative Protestant preacher. He led his own party, the World Economic Community Party.

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Okinawa gubernatorial 1998^[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	LDP	Keiichi Inamine	374,833	52.43	12.72
	Social Democratic	Masahide Ōta *	337,369	47.19	13.10
	World Economic Community Party	Mitsuo Matayoshi	2,649	0.37	n/a
Total valid votes			714,851	99.40
Turnout			719.159	76.54	14.00
Registered electors			939.545
	Swing to LDP from Social Democratic		Swing	5.24

• Content in this edit is translated from the existing Japanese Wikipedia article at ja:1998年沖縄県知事選挙; see its history for attribution.