EDITORIAL: Nagoya mayor resigns

Nagoya Mayor Takashi Kawamura tendered his resignation Monday and announced his candidacy for the resulting mayoral election. The move came just after a petition by citizens paved the way for a referendum on the dissolution of the assembly. There seems to be no good reason for his resignation at this moment.

Kawamura said he wanted a renewed mandate. But the mayor, who garnered as many as 510,000 votes in the election in spring 2009, remains hugely popular among voters. His real aim is to hold the mayoral election at the same time as the scheduled Aichi gubernatorial poll in February, for which one of his political allies, Lower House lawmaker Hideaki Omura, will be running.

Kawamura would be able to support Omura while staying in office. But he is apparently betting that he can help increase Omura's chances by setting the stage for a double election, which will attract much public attention.

The first referendum in an ordinance-designated major city will be held on the same day as the gubernatorial election. That referendum has been eclipsed. The referendum was supposed to give voters an opportunity to ponder the differences between the mayor and the assembly over such issues as tax cuts and revenue sources.

In Saku, Nagano Prefecture, where a referendum on the construction of a new municipal cultural hall was held in November, the city government held as many as 21 meetings to explain the project.

Soon after announcing his resignation in a news conference, Kawamura headed to Osaka along with Omura. In Osaka, Kawamura attended a meeting of the local political party Osaka Ishin no Kai (Osaka restoration association), headed by Osaka Governor Toru Hashimoto. He discussed his "Chukyo Metropolis" vision of consolidated regional administration, which has been inspired by Hashimoto's "Osaka Metropolis" proposal.

Kawamura's ability to take daring, sometimes bizarre, actions has made him popular. He has earned a lot of applause by taking a confrontational stance toward the assembly members who have built cozy relations among themselves over the years. All the parties, except the Japanese Communist Party, have joined the ruling camp.

In calling for a recall of the assembly, Kawamura advocates three key policy initiatives: a permanent cut in the municipal income tax, expansion of the area committee system for civic participation in local governance, and the halving of the salaries of the assembly members. He failed to win the assembly's support for these proposals. All were voted down. Some 360,000 valid signatures were collected in support of a petition to dissolve the assembly.

What happens now?

Local governments are now formulating their budgets for the next fiscal year. This is the time for Kawamura to demonstrate how the administrative reform he advocates can save money. He was criticized for curtailing services for citizens when he compiled the current budget. Nagoya's outstanding debt stands at 1.8 trillion yen ($21.5 billion), nearly double the city's general-account budget. Is a tax cut a reasonable proposal despite this massive debt? Citizens need to consider this question.

The city will spend 240 million yen on the mayoral election. Kawamura's resignation at this moment does not lead to simultaneous elections for the mayor and the assembly. The gubernatorial poll, in which Kawamura has taken a political stake, won't have any direct effect on the operation of the city assembly. How does he intend to justify his resignation before even serving half of his term?

Omura is apparently hoping to heighten his name recognition by appearing together with the popular mayor in TV programs and newspaper coverage. If so, news media should be sober and restrained in covering these races.

Kawamura's behavior appears to reflect the growing political trend of attacking easy targets with harsh words for political gain. In this society, with its growing sense of stagnation, there are certainly many problems that can be pointed out. But verbal attacks alone cannot give us a new start.

Kawamura, who was elected mayor with broad support, should have buckled down to wrestling with policy challenges for the benefit of citizens.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Dec. 21