OSAKA–Osaka Governor Hirofumi Yoshimura plans to call gubernatorial and mayoral races to coincide with the next Lower House election in another attempt to turn the Osaka area into a metropolis like Tokyo.
The Osaka metropolis proposal was twice defeated in local referendums.
Yoshimura, who serves as leader of Nippon Ishin (Japan Innovation Party), conveyed his intention to senior party officials on Jan. 13.
He is considering resigning with Osaka Mayor Hideyuki Yokoyama, the deputy party leader, to seek a public mandate on whether Nippon Ishin should pursue the Osaka metropolis plan again if a Lower House election is held at an early date.
Yoshimura is expected to announce his final decision at a news conference as early as Jan. 15, party officials said.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is considering dissolving the Lower House at the opening of the ordinary Diet session on Jan. 23, which would lead to a snap election in February.
The Osaka metropolis plan seeks to streamline administrative functions by abolishing Osaka city, currently an ordinance-designated city, and restructuring it into special wards similar to those in Tokyo.
It has been a signature policy for regional political party Osaka Ishin no Kai since its inception.
However, the proposal was narrowly voted down in public referendums in 2015 and 2020.
According to the Nippon Ishin officials, Yoshimura and Yokoyama would run for their respective posts in an envisaged double election.
Even if both were re-elected, their terms would still end as scheduled on April 8, 2027.
Speaking to reporters on Jan. 13, Yoshimura for the first time raised the possibility of holding a resign-to-run gubernatorial election concurrently with the Lower House vote.
“I want to carefully consider various possibilities and options,” he said.
The same day, Yokoyama also said he was considering resigning.
“If the goal is to confirm the public will on making another attempt at the Osaka metropolis plan, (a resign-to-run election) is the most straightforward way,” he said.
Yoshimura was re-elected as governor in 2023 after stating that he would not pursue the administrative reform initiative.
However, he reversed course in autumn 2024 and announced that Nippon Ishin would begin designing a new institutional framework for the proposal.
Yoshimura has since maintained that any new attempt would need to go through “some kind of democratic process.”
In a draft outline for legislation published by Nippon Ishin in September to advance the “secondary capital concept,” the realization of the Osaka metropolis plan was listed as a prerequisite for Osaka to become a sub-capital.
The plan to enact legislation for the secondary capital concept was included in a coalition agreement that Nippon Ishin concluded with the Liberal Democratic Party in October.
However, criticism has mounted from other parties against the twin-election strategy. Nippon Ishin has been rocked by scandals, including allegations that affiliated local assembly members used a legally dubious practice to avoid paying National Health Insurance premiums.
Hiroyuki Moriyama, who heads the Osaka prefectural chapter of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, said: “Even if they win an election that’s slipped in as an add-on to a national contest amid the confusion, can they truly claim to have gained a mandate (for the Osaka metropolis plan or the secondary capital concept)?”
AloJapan.com