Unpopular Second Capital Initiative

One week before showdown over integration Osaka City to Osaka Prefecture, campaign between two sides are getting highly intensive. Mayor of Osaka, Toru Hashimoto, appeals merit of the integration in his daily town meetings in the city. On the opposite side, unusual coalition, including Liberal Democratic Party, Democratic Party of Japan and even Japan Communist Party, raises their voice to stop radical movement in Osaka. Polls showed that the opposites are running ahead of the reformers.

The booming issue in Osaka, called Osaka Capital Initiative, was raised by Hashimoto and his colleagues to get rid of wasteful spending of both prefectural and city government about six years ago. Although he failed to get approval from peripheral cities around Osaka, including Sakai City being one of the key factors for his success, he chose a gambling option to ask the residents of Osaka City a referendum about integration of the city to greater Osaka.

The plan is to abolish Osaka City, in short. There are forty-three cities, towns and a village in Osaka Prefecture and Osaka City is one of them. New system is to separate Osaka City into five districts, each of which has greater autonomic power than ordinary cities. The shape is closer to the system of Tokyo Metropolitan Prefecture that is consisted with twenty-three autonomic districts and other cities, towns and villages.

Hashimoto is selling his plan for stopping decades-long decline of Osaka and building bright future for following generations. Raising two tall towers, one was built by Osaka City and another by Osaka Prefecture, as an example, he insists that both governments will not stop spending tax money for their bureaucratic competition. However, he has not made clear what kind of future is waiting.

The opposite side criticizes that once Osaka City is abolished, there will never be Osaka City again. They claim that tax money from city residents will be absorbed by new greater Osaka government and only one-fourth will be returned. Unlike Tokyo, peripheral cities have two times bigger population than Osaka, sending more assembly members to Prefectural Congress than Osaka City. All parties joining opposite side predict that public service will immediately be deteriorated.

In the poll by Asahi Shimbun last weekend, 33% approved the initiative, while 43% opposed. The poll by Yomiuri or Sankei showed similar results. Voters are highly interested in the referendum, but more people are worried about deteriorated public service. Voting day is next Sunday.