Osaka Mayor-elect Toru Hashimoto's administrative reform plan has only limited support so far among prominent local leaders, with just six openly backing his proposed bureaucratic shakeup, a survey has found.
In late November, Hashimoto won a landslide victory in the Osaka mayoral election on a platform that promised to eliminate administrative overlap between Osaka's prefectural and municipal governments. The survey polled the mayors of Japan's 18 officially designated major cities, and the governors of the 13 prefectures that host them — excluding Osaka Prefecture and the city of Osaka.
Six leaders declared themselves to be in favor of Hashimoto's proposed reforms — the governors of Niigata, Aichi, Kyoto and Hyogo, and the mayors of the cities of Niigata and Nagoya.
One governor and three mayors said they oppose Hashimoto's plan, while the remaining 21 expressed a neutral stance.