A useless talk shop that will ultimately be remembered as a massive waste of taxpayer money, or a farsighted experiment that will someday be seen as the forerunner of a fundamentally new system of central government?
That's the question that supporters and critics of the Union of Kansai Governments are asking three years after seven Kansai prefectures and four major cities banded together to increase cooperation in everything from disaster planning to tourism promotion and standardized testing and licensing.
Due to geography, Kansai's main cities of Osaka, Kyoto, Nara and Kobe are no more than an hour apart by limited express trains. It's possible to travel to all four in under 2½ hours, which is less than the time it takes to travel by shinkansen between Tokyo and Osaka.