The 60-year sister city relationship between Osaka and San Francisco looks to be heading for retirement if Osaka Mayor Hirofumi Yoshimura and his allies in the city who oppose San Francisco's new "comfort women" memorial get their way.

The memorial to the so-called comfort women, who were forced to provide sex for Japanese troops before and during World War II, was unveiled last month after the Japanese government as well as some Japanese residents in the U.S. and Japan protested.

Yoshimura, a conservative with Osaka Ishin no Kai (One Osaka), a local political group, has a plurality in the city assembly, has charged that San Francisco's erection of the comfort women memorial last month is a form of "Japan-bashing."