By SHOHEI SASAGAWA/ Staff Writer
September 4, 2020 at 18:20 JST
OSAKA--A second referendum on reorganizing Osaka city into a metropolis like Tokyo will be called for November, now that the city assembly has approved holding another plebiscite.
The Osaka city assembly on Sept. 3 voted to soon hold a referendum on a plan to officially dissolve the city and reform it into four special wards to streamline administration.
Campaigning for the referendum will start on Oct. 12, with voting and counting ballots scheduled on Nov. 1.
A series of important procedures necessary to hold the referendum has been completed with the city assembly's approval for the vote, since the prefectural assembly had already agreed to hold the referendum.
The first referendum on the Osaka metropolis plan, held in 2015, was narrowly voted down.
The plan is billed as a way to eliminate conflicting administration, where some functions overlap between the Osaka prefectural and municipal governments.
Under the proposed plan, Osaka city's 24 wards would be reformed into four special wards--creating an administrative jurisdictional system basically equivalent to Tokyo’s 23 wards, which have administrative status similar to municipalities.
The Osaka prefectural government would take charge of certain administrative functions responsible for wide areas beyond the jurisdiction of Osaka city, such as infrastructure development.
The proposal is designed to streamline overlapping bureaucracy between the governments of Osaka Prefecture and Osaka city, an ordinance-designated city.
The problem is shared by other regions in the country, and prefectural governments and ordinance-designated cities, which have administrative authorities close to those of prefectures, are frequently at odds with each other.
At a Sept. 3 plenary session of the city assembly, the plan won the support of Komeito, which opposed it in 2015, and the regional party Osaka Ishin no Kai. Together, they formed a majority in the assembly. The Liberal Democratic Party, the Japanese Communist Party and others opposed the plan.
If a majority of voters in the city support the plan to officially dissolve the ordinance-designated city of Osaka, it will be the first large-scale government jurisdictional overhaul since the administrative system was introduced in 1956.
Should the plan win approval in the second referendum, new special wards will be established and the new administrative systems will be introduced on Jan. 1, 2025.
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Osaka Mayor Ichiro Matsui answers questions from reporters after the city assembly agreed to hold a second referendum on the Osaka metropolis plan at a plenary session on Sept. 3. (Tatsuo Kanai)
