The Yomiuri ShimbunIn a bid to realize their policy, a governor and a mayor announced their resignations and seek to switch their positions through elections. Doubts cannot be dispelled over this “unusual tactic.”

Osaka Gov. Ichiro Matsui and Osaka Mayor Hirofumi Yoshimura have submitted their resignations to run in the twin gubernatorial and mayoral elections. They said the move is intended to put the so-called Osaka metropolis plan — which has been touted by the regional political party Osaka Ishin no Kai, led by Matsui — to a vote.

If they run for the same posts again, their terms of office will expire in November for the governor and December for the mayor. However, if they switch their posts, they can secure new four-year terms of office. Local government leaders have a duty to seamlessly carry out policy measures as heads of administrative bodies. Matsui and Yoshimura cannot escape criticism for switching their posts for their own convenience.

The metropolis plan calls for abolishing the ordinance-designated city of Osaka and reorganizing the city’s current 24 wards into special wards, a system modeled on Tokyo. The plan aims to eliminate administrative overlap between the Osaka prefectural and city governments and promote the development of wide-area infrastructure and other projects in an integrated manner.

The metropolis plan was rejected by a narrow margin in a local referendum held in May 2015 when Toru Hashimoto was the Osaka mayor. Matsui and Yoshimura, who won landslide victories in double elections in November that year, have since revived the plan as a policy issue.

Failure, not ‘betrayal’

Komeito initially took a stance of cooperating with them to achieve their aim to hold another local referendum on the plan while they are in office, but refused to make a promise in a written document. This apparently prompted their double election move to break the deadlock.

Questions have been raised over Matsui’s criticism that they “were betrayed by Komeito.” It should be the nature of politicians to tenaciously engage in dialogue and find common ground. Just because they failed to reach an agreement does not justify the attitude of passing the blame onto others.

Holding a local referendum requires approval votes by the both prefectural and city assemblies. Osaka Ishin no Kai does not have a majority of seats in the assemblies. By holding the twin elections on the same day as prefectural and city assembly races in April, the party aims to raise public interest in the metropolis plan and gain a majority in the assemblies. This is one of the reasons for holding the double elections.

Such an approach could further widen the rift between Osaka Ishin no Kai and other parties, including Komeito, and delay the realization of the metropolis plan. It could cause confusion in administrative operations.

In cooperation between the Osaka prefectural and city governments, progress has been made in eliminating instances of administrative overlap, such as by integrating the corporate entities that operate the prefectural and city universities, and merging research institutions. If the party wants to deepen public understanding of the metropolis plan, such steady efforts should be continued.

Local elections are intended to seek a mandate from residents on a wide range of local issues such as on how education, child-rearing, health care and welfare should be.

It is hard to say that fighting an election battle on the single issue of whether the metropolis plan should be realized is what elections are supposed to be about. How should the effectiveness of the prefectural and city government operations be improved, and how should the hosting of the World Expo be used to revitalize Osaka? Political parties must appeal to voters with their policy measures and fight the elections.

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, March 9, 2019)Speech

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