One month after Osaka voters said no, just barely, to his pet project of fundamentally restructuring the municipal government, Mayor Toru Hashimoto finds himself courted by an increasingly anxious Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who hopes to borrow whatever is left of Hashimoto's influence in the Japan Innovation Party, and get new security bills passed by the end of the summer.
As ever, Hashimoto is playing hard-to-get, even as he is quite happy to find himself back in the national media spotlight. However, the meeting between Hashimoto and Abe a week ago was seen in Osaka as a sign Abe's government is getting desperate in the face of expert consensus the bills are unconstitutional, and needs all the allies he can find to pass them before the September, when the Liberal Democratic Party presidential election takes place.
Clearly, Abe is courting Hashimoto to pressure coalition partner Komeito (the "liberal" wing of the Liberal Democratic Party?). However, last week’s meeting was also another step in the longer-term effort by Abe and his allies to separate Hashimoto and his most ardent supporters in his Japan Innovation Party of constitutional revision from the rest of the party.