Kyoto's quest to host the Cultural Affairs Agency took a step forward last week, after education and culture minister Hiroshi Hase said talks in Tokyo on the issue would proceed under the assumption the move to Kyoto will take place.
"I told Kyoto Gov. Keiji Yamada and Kyoto Mayor Daisaku Kadokawa the government was discussing the matter under this pretext," Hase said.
Kyoto has long coveted the Cultural Affairs Agency, seeing its relocation to the ancient capital as natural and benefitting both the preservation of Japan's cultural heritage and its promotion abroad. The idea also has the support of influential Diet members from Kyoto Prefecture, like Liberal Democratic Party Secretary-General Sadakazu Tanigaki.
While Kyoto is the most prominent major city in Kansai to seek the relocation of a central government organ, Osaka, which Mayor Toru Hashimoto's Osaka Ishin no Kai party wants to turn into Japan's "backup" capital, has also expressed an interest in hosting some of the ministries, albeit for reasons often more sentimental than practical.
Past efforts in some Osaka business quarters have focused on relocating the Finance Ministry to Osaka, the argument being that, as the traditional financial center of Japan, the city is uniquely positioned to host it, and that doing so will also lessen the kinds of political pressures created by keeping it in Tokyo.
Such attempts, however, were little more than wishful thinking and went nowhere.
Kyoto's pursuit of the Cultural Affairs Agency has gone much further. But as Kyoto Gov. Yamada has said, it still faces the toughest task of all: persuading the bureaucrats to not only accept change, but also leave Tokyo.