Photo/Illutration Osaka Mayor Ichiro Matsui and other politicians stand up to vote ‘yes’ on a plan to reorganize the Osaka city government during a committee meeting in Osaka on Dec. 26. (Nobuhiro Shirai)

OSAKA--Local politicians gave the green light to an ambitious but polarizing plan to reorganize the Osaka city government into four special wards under an initiative to form a Tokyo-like metropolitan government.

By majority vote, members of a legal committee set up to discuss the idea decided on Dec. 26 to abolish the municipal government and split it into four special wards.

The transition to the special ward system will start on Jan. 1, 2025, according to the plan.

The local politicians will discuss the plan with the central government to determine if fiscal management and work distribution at the special wards will run smoothly.

A final draft of the plan is expected by June 2020, and a referendum on the project will be held in early November.

At the committee meeting, 14 assembly members of Osaka Ishin no Kai and Komeito voted in favor of the plan, while five members of the Liberal Democratic Party and the Japanese Communist Party voted against it.

Under the detailed plan, urban planning, infrastructure development and other related regional-scale duties will be shifted from the Osaka city government to the Osaka prefectural government.

The special ward offices will handle issues closely related to residents, such as child-rearing and social welfare.

Instead of building new offices, the special wards will use existing Osaka city government and ward offices.

“The current ‘double-administration’ (of the prefectural and municipal governments) needs to be dissolved,” a member of Osaka Ishin no Kai said at the committee meeting.

A Komeito representative said the proposed plan “will maintain services for local residents” and is in accordance with the party’s own proposal on the issue.

However, the LDP complained that the plan “didn’t address the risks at all.”

The Japanese Communist Party criticized the plan as “going against the concept of decentralization of power.”

The idea of giving birth to a Tokyo-like administrative system was first proposed by Toru Hashimoto, a former Osaka governor who headed Osaka Ishin no Kai, in 2010.

The proposal was defeated by a narrow margin in a referendum held in 2015.

After debate on the issue died down, Osaka Ishin no Kai cruised to victory in the unified local elections in April this year.

Komeito then shifted its position and agreed with plan to split the Osaka city government into special wards, giving a burst of momentum to the movement.

In a previously proposed plan, Osaka city would be split into five special wards.

The new plan for four special wards increases the population in each ward and reduces the expected costs needed for the transition.