Japan to Hold Referendum on 'Osakado Plan' Integrating Osaka City and Prefecture on July 1

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Hyunjin] A referendum on the so-called "Osakado Plan," which proposes abolishing Osaka City and reorganizing it into four special wards to integrate with Osaka Prefecture, will be held on the 1st of next month. If the majority votes in favor, Osaka City will be the first among the 20 government-designated cities (cities with a population of over 500,000 designated by the government) to be abolished.

According to NHK and other sources on the 12th, a referendum was announced for approximately 2.25 million eligible voters aged 18 and over residing in Osaka City. This is the second referendum on the Osakado Plan since May 2015. At that time, the proposal was rejected as the number of opposing votes narrowly exceeded the supporting votes. The Osakado Plan emerged as a solution to the dual administrative issues arising from Osaka Prefecture and Osaka City each holding metropolitan administrative authority such as infrastructure maintenance. The core idea is to dissolve the city and prefecture and reorganize them like Tokyo's 23 wards.

Ichiro Matsui, mayor of Osaka and representative of the Osaka Ishin no Kai, and Hirofumi Yoshimura, governor of Osaka Prefecture, who are leading the Osakado Plan, focused on campaigning for the referendum approval until just before the announcement day. They emphasized, "The biggest disadvantage for Osaka citizens is the conflict between the prefecture and the city," adding, "To fundamentally eliminate this, we must change the system and say goodbye to dual administration. Let's create an Osaka recognized worldwide as a city equal to Tokyo."

On the other hand, the Liberal Democratic Party and others oppose the plan, citing concerns such as "high transition costs" and "potential deterioration of resident services." Members of civic groups opposing the plan have also protested, arguing that "the city's financial resources and authority will be transferred to the prefecture, which will worsen resident services."

The referendum on the Osakado Plan is based on the Special Measures Law for Establishing Large City Areas enacted in 2012, and will pass if the majority votes in favor regardless of voter turnout. The Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported that the voter turnout in the 2015 referendum was 66.83%, higher than the 2017 House of Representatives election (47.08%) and the 2019 mayoral election (52.70%), noting that "due to the difficulty of holding large-scale gatherings amid the spread of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), voter turnout is one of the points of interest."

Katsunobu Kato, Chief Cabinet Secretary, said at a regular briefing on the day, "It is a very important issue for the region to decide its own fundamental stance," and added, "We expect that the citizens of Osaka have sufficiently understood and are judging the contents of the 'Special Ward Establishment Agreement.'"

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.