Politics & Diplomacy | ANALYSIS Sep 30, 2013

Hashimoto's Osaka merger dream in jeopardy

by Reiji Yoshida

Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party) co-leader and Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto was facing a critical battle. And he lost. On Sunday, a candidate fielded by Nippon Ishin lost a local government election for the first time in Osaka Prefecture, the power base ...

Politics & Diplomacy Sep 29, 2013

Mayor of Sakai returned in fresh blow to Hashimoto

Mayor Osami Takeyama’s victory Sunday in the Sakai mayoral election in Osaka Prefecture has cast a shadow over the political future of brash Nippon Ishin co-leader Toru Hashimoto, the mayor of Osaka. Takeyama, a 63-year-old independent, defeated former Sakai Assemblyman Katsutoshi Nishibayashi, his sole ...

Politics & Diplomacy Sep 27, 2013

Nippon Ishin's future seen riding on Sakai mayor race

by Eric Johnston

Sunday’s mayoral contest in Sakai, one of Japan’s most independent-minded cities, is expected to decide not only the fate of a plan to merge Osaka prefectural cities into a single administrative entity, but also the fate of national-level efforts to create a new opposition ...