Sunday's mayoral contest in Sakai, one of Japan's most independent-minded cities, is expected to decide not only the fate of a plan to merge Osaka prefectural cities into a single administrative entity, but also the fate of national-level efforts to create a new opposition party.
But most of all, the race between Mayor Osami Takeyama, 63, and Katsutoshi Nishibayashi, 43, backed by Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party), is seen as a major turning point for Osaka Mayor and Nippon Ishin co-leader Toru Hashimoto and the future of his party.
Sakai, Osaka Prefecture's second-largest city with a population of more than 840,000, is an ancient port that was at one time one of the wealthiest cities in the country. Over the centuries, Chinese, Korean and European traders passed through Sakai, which from the 14th to 16th centuries was something of an autonomous fiefdom that considers itself historically and somewhat culturally distinct from the city of Osaka.