Wasteful bureaucratic spending. Local politicians who smell money as they make Olympics-related plans. An assembly dominated by a clique of good ol' boys in the Liberal Democratic Party who run local government as their fiefdom. All challenged by a hawkish outsider of a governor who is media-savvy and enjoys the accolades of the local foreign business community, but is criticized as disloyal and untrustworthy by political opponents.
Media reporting and commentary on the continuing scandal over the move of the Tsukiji Fish Market, and the battles newly elected Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike is facing over bureaucratic waste and with LDP members in the metropolitan assembly — for Osakans this must feel like "deja vu all over again," as Yogi Berra might say.
In 2008, Toru Hashimoto became governor in Osaka, promising sweeping reform for a local government that had been plagued by decades of fiscal mismanagement and corrupt public works projects, both of which became very noticeable during the city's failed bid for the 2008 Olympics. He faced-off against a hostile local LDP and local bureaucracy, even as the local foreign and Kansai business communities cheered him on.