Is the Tokyo Metropolitan Government about to adopt Osaka's approach to local government reform, leading to an Osaka-centric political party expanding its influence to the nation's capital?

The very thought might make proud Tokyoites shudder (and proud Osakans smirk or shake their heads in wonder). But comments by Tokyo's new governor, Yuriko Koike, herself from the Kansai region, and senior Osaka Ishin no Kai officials over the past few weeks have created intense speculation that cooperation between her and Osaka Ishin is a real possibility.

Koike's promises of reform and cost-cutting, and her confrontation with Tokyo assembly members backed by the Liberal Democratic Party, which refused to support her candidacy, echo the situation in Osaka in 2008, when then-Gov. Toru Hashimoto challenged the establishment, took control and forced through numerous cost-cutting measures and bureaucratic reforms that were staunchly opposed by the local chapter of the LDP.