Onaga died in office aged 67 from illness in August 2018 and was succeeded by Okinawa 3rd district representative Denny Tamaki.

[3] Takeshi Onaga was born on 2 October 1950 in Naha, Okinawa, at the time under American military administration after Japan's defeat in World War II.

[4] After briefly working for a construction company, Onaga ran and was elected to the Naha City Council in 1985 for the Liberal Democratic Party.

[4] Onaga thought the base was against the will of the Okinawan people but he did not feel as mayor he has the power to oppose the Japanese central government, who supported the move.

[4] Onaga died at a hospital in Urasoe on 8 August 2018, four days after announcing his "last resort" of withdrawing planning permission for the construction of the U.S. military .