Despite widespread public support for the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's plan to levy a new tax on major banks, other local governments have been slow to follow suit -- because they realize the capital's situation is unique.

The metro ordinance, which will levy a tax of up to 3 percent on banks with assets totaling 5 trillion yen or more from April, was put forward by the metropolis as an effective means of securing a stable source of tax revenue for the cash-strapped local government.

But while the assembly defied the protests of the central government and the banking industry in voting almost unanimously for the new bank tax Thursday, the same option may not be as attractive for other prefectures.

"Tokyo is extremely fortunate," Miyagi Gov. Shiro Asano -- who rivals Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara both in media exposure and in his desire to achieve it -- told The Japan Times in a telephone interview. "There is a huge risk in levying taxes that differ from other prefectures -- the risk that companies faced with new taxes may pack up and leave."

Business is concentrated to a disproportionate degree in Tokyo, where many companies keep their headquarters. Tokyo boasts a budget for fiscal 2000 of 5.98 trillion yen, an amount that rivals the budgets of some nations.

Asano praised Ishihara's plan, saying it gave "governors nationwide the courage that they, too, can (levy local taxes independent of central government policies)," but he voiced frustration that Tokyo has an indisputable advantage over other prefectures as the center of Japan's economic activity.

Asano said he considered reducing local taxes in order to attract banks from Tokyo to Miyagi, but the five-year period of the new tax ordinance in Tokyo would not make relocation economically viable for banks.

"Tokyo is in an enviable position" in that it does not have to fear an outflow of business, Asano said.

He and the governors of 11 other prefectures will meet on April 13 to discuss new tax revenues and to issue a statement to the central government calling for establishment of a size-based local tax system nationwide for a wider range of industries.

Because all 47 prefectures except Tokyo receive tax grants from the central government to supplement their meager tax income, securing independent sources of revenue would effectively only cut the grants.

Kochi Gov. Daijiro Hashimoto, who will also attend the April 13 meeting, has consistently supported Ishihara's tax plan. Hashimoto, an NHK reporter-turned-politician and younger brother of former Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, said he would do the same thing if he were the governor of Tokyo.

But his office also admits that it would be difficult to do the same thing in Kochi. Kochi is not Tokyo, officials close to the governor said, adding that the prefecture has not considered proposing a similar new local tax.

"A nationwide new size-based tax levied on all industries, with due consideration to small to medium-size firms, is most desirable," Hashimoto said.

He added that he hopes a range of ideas will emerge from the governors' meeting, such as a review of the distribution of tax revenues between the central and local governments.