Nine Osaka Prefectural Assembly members, including chairman Yoshio Matsui, are on an overseas junket to promote Osaka's 2008 Olympic bid and to study administrative reform, despite opposition from fellow assembly members and a local citizens' group.
The trip, which runs through April 10 and covers four countries, is taking place despite a 200 billion yen budget deficit for fiscal 1997 and the 11 million yen it is costing taxpayers. On March 27, six days after the prefectural assembly passed the budget, seven members of the Liberal Democratic Party and two members of the Democratic Party, Social Democratic Party and the Coalition of Osaka Prefecture Citizens, departed for a 15-day tour of Vietnam, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand.
Their itinerary includes two days in Vietnam, one in Singapore, and two each in Brisbane, Sydney and Wellington. "As Osaka is interested in hosting the G-7 summit in 2000, the group studied our convention center to get an idea of how to build their own international convention center," said Sandra Tan of the Singapore International Convention and Exhibition Center shortly after the group's visit there earlier this week.