Home Affairs Minister Mitsuhiro Uesugi has expressed support for a plan to convert Tokyo's 23 wards into full-fledged municipal bodies, Tokyo Gov. Yukio Aoshima said Thursday.

"The minister promised he will certainly submit related bills to the next Diet session," Aoshima said after his meeting with the minister. If the bills are passed, by April 2000 each ward office would receive more autonomy and financial power from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.

The 23 wards that make up metropolitan Tokyo have a combined population of 8 million and have been under the special control of the metropolitan government since the end of World War II. The governments of the 23 wards and assemblies have been given only a limited amount of tax revenue sources, and a variety of their services, such as waste collection and disposal, are provided by the metropolitan government.

The Tokyo metropolitan government and local politicians have long been asking the ministry to reform the system and submit legislation, but the campaign hit a snag when a union of metropolitan government workers firmly opposed the transfer of waste-related jobs to ward governments. But the metro government has recently gained the union's tentative "understanding" through a number of marathon negotiations; details of job transfers will continue to be discussed by the two parties.