Could reform mission put Taro Kono on path to succeed Suga?
Driving reforms is giving the media- and social media-savvy 57-year-old the opportunity to raise his political profile by playing to his strengths. Will it be enough?
Let the Suga-Nippon Ishin bromance begin
Osaka Mayor Ichiro Matsui and his supporters are breathing easy, knowing their favorite LDP politician is now the prime minister.
Japan's governors under the spotlight as coronavirus pandemic rages
The coronavirus pandemic has prompted the national government to declare an emergency in seven prefectures. This, in turn, has put the spotlight on the powers and responsibilities of prefectural governors. Though often compared to state governors elsewhere, there are key differences. What is the current ...
Journalist ordered to pay ex-Osaka Gov. Toru Hashimoto ¥330,000 over suicide-related retweet
The Osaka District Court on Thursday ordered a journalist to pay ¥330,000 in compensation to former Osaka Gov. Toru Hashimoto for retweeting a message that suggested Hashimoto had pressured a senior prefectural government official to kill themselves. Hashimoto had filed a lawsuit against Yasumi Iwakami ...
After yearslong fight, Osaka subway drivers win court case over Toru Hashimoto-era beard ban
A district court ruled Wednesday in favor of two subway drivers who sought compensation from the Osaka Municipal Government, claiming they received poor performance reviews for refusing to comply with internal regulations banning beards. The Osaka District Court ordered the city to pay the men ...
10 years on, Osaka fiscal reform started by Toru Hashimoto remains unfinished
Since Toru Hashimoto was elected Osaka governor in January 2008 and subsequently launched a reform drive, the prefecture has turned its debt-heavy public finances around to achieve budget surpluses. Some experts, however, downplay the recovery as superficial and suggest there is a long way to ...
Hashimoto cuts ties with Nippon Ishin after party's poor election showing
Toru Hashimoto, the former Osaka governor, mayor and co-founder of Osaka-based Nippon Ishin no Kai, has cut ties with the national party following its poor performance in the Oct. 22 Lower House election. "I'm resigning as Nippon Ishin's legal adviser," Hashimoto said on his Twitter ...
Osaka-Tokyo regional split seen keeping Koike's, Hashimoto's camps at arm's length
The rise and — so far — fall in popularity of Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike's Kibo no To (Party of Hope) comes as no surprise in Osaka, where her ability to govern effectively, as opposed to deal with the media, has long been in ...
Success of Koike's Tomin First echoes Ishin no Kai movement
A popular, media-savvy figure originally from the Kansai region wins the governorship by running as a reformer, then forming a political party to take on the Liberal Democratic Party in the local assembly election. Upon winning a plurality of votes, the party teams up ...
Ex-Osaka mayor Hashimoto to retire as policy adviser for Nippon Ishin
Former Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto will step down Wednesday as a policy adviser for the opposition Nippon Ishin no Kai as he seeks to maintain political neutrality, sources said Tuesday. Hashimoto, who ended his career as a politician in 2015, has been making TV appearances ...
Power politics: Japan's most popular political platforms
Looking back at some of the political platforms that have been heavily endorsed by voters over the past century in a bid to predict where the country might be headed under the 'third generation' of postwar Japanese.
Hashimoto urges U.S. to 'throw fastball' at Japan to raise its security perceptions
Toru Hashimoto, an adviser to the Japanese opposition party Nippon Ishin no Kai, asked the United States on Monday to apply "strong pressure" on Japan to change ordinary people's perceptions about security and the bilateral alliance. Speaking at a think tank in Washington, Hashimoto said ...
