Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto's campaign to fundamentally reform the central government is moving forward even as Diet lawmakers and members of his own group criticize his goals as unrealistic.
Earlier this week, nearly 100 members of Hashimoto's Osaka Ishin no Kai (One Osaka) group met to discuss a draft of a new platform that will form the basis of the policy goals of Hashimoto-backed candidates in the next Lower House election.
Known as Senchu Hassaku, a reference to eight proposals drawn up by Ryoma Sakamoto in 1867 that became the foundation of the Meiji Restoration, the draft calls fundamental reform in eight areas, including local government, the structure of the Diet, civil servant laws, education, social welfare, economics, diplomacy and defense, and constitutional revision.