February 6, 2011
A local party headed by the Osaka prefectural governor is also in the “all-are-ruling-party” structure giving favor to large corporations while discarding the socially weak.
In nationwide local elections slated for April, how to defend residents’ welfare and livelihoods will be a key issue. Appearing to be rivals when it comes to the election campaign, such political parties as the Democratic Party of Japan, Liberal Democratic, Komei, and Your parties as well as local parties are in an “all-are-ruling-party” structure of engagement and are, in effect, similar with each other in their policies.
A local party headed by the Osaka prefectural governor is also in the “all-are-ruling-party” structure giving favor to large corporations while discarding the socially weak.
Osaka Governor Hashimoto Toru has a high public profile. He is a lawyer-turned politician and a TV personality. In April 2010, he set up his own political body, the One Osaka (Osaka Ishin-no Kai), aiming for a metropolitan Osaka government like the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. The local party plans to put up more than 100 candidates in Osaka’s local elections.
The media, meanwhile, takes advantage of the popularity of his blunt and casual way of talking to delight viewers, and broadcasts showdowns between his party and existing parties.
However, his party consists of politicians from the existing parties.
A total of 47 politicians in the Osaka Prefectural Assembly and city assemblies of Osaka and Sakai (both government-decreed cities) switched sides to the Osaka Ishin-no Kai from the LDP and the DPJ. The Osaka Ishin-no Kai is the largest faction in the prefectural assembly at present. Based on Hashimoto’s popularity, his local party is seeking to achieve a majority in the prefectural assembly and in the two city assemblies in the April local elections.
The leaflet of an Osaka Ishin-no Kai’s candidate for a prefectural assembly seat has odd stickers inserted in several places. If one peels off the “Osaka Ishin-no Kai” sticker, residents can see the letters “LDP” under the sticker. Under the local party’s logo sticker and under the candidate’s title sticker, the “LDP” is back on the surface of the leaflet. The candidate’s office even hangs a sign saying, “The office of the LDP member of the Osaka Prefectural Assembly.”
A poster of an Osaka Ishin-no Kai candidate for the upcoming Osaka Prefectural Assembly election was found on the house wall of a woman in her 70s, a long-time LDP supporter in Ibaraki City. She put up the poster without knowing that the candidate belongs to the Osaka Ishin-no Kai. She said, “What? Ishin-no Kai? Isn’t that Ishi Kai (medical associations)? Anyway, I’m sure it is the same as the LDP or closely linked to the party.”
More importantly, there is no difference in policies between Ishin-no Kai and such parties as the DPJ, the LDP and the Komei Party. Governor of Osaka Prefecture Hashimoto Toru and Mayor of Osaka City Hiramatsu Kunio have been cutting down on expenditures on social services for their residents by using the need for financial reconstruction as the pretext. These are exactly the same measures adopted by previous Osaka governors and mayors with the support of the “all-are-ruling party” structure. Members of the Ishin-no Kai also belonged to the structure.
Prefectural and city governments backed up by the “all-are-ruling party” setup have spent enormous amounts of tax money on massive infrastructure projects including bay area development, a second-phase construction project of the Kansai International Airport, and construction of more expressways and a Super Hub Port while giving generous subsidies for inviting corporations to locate to the region. These projects ended up in failure, and local taxpayers are forced to shoulder the heavy burden of accumulated debt.
The Ishin-no Kai proposes creating an “Osaka Metropolitan Government,” terminating the region’s dual administrations, the Osaka Prefectural Government and the Osaka City Government. The party in its manifesto says it will consolidate financial resources related to the region in order to intensively invest them in certain projects under a grand design drawn up for the entire region. This means that the “Osaka Metropolitan Government” will centralize its powers and financial resources, and invest them mainly in infrastructure development primarily benefitting large corporations while relinquishing the role of providing social services for its residents.
This is the initiative leading to the full introduction of a “doshu-sei” regional system to reorganize Japan into several regional blocs, a proposal put forward by the financial circles in the Kansai region since 1955. A support group for Osaka Ishin-no Kai was also set up and led by members of the Kansai Association of Corporate Executives. “We will vigorously back up its campaign toward the nationwide local elections,” said Saraya Yusuke, President of Saraya Co., Ltd. The Osaka Ishin-no Kai is, therefore, nothing but a business-first local political party.
A local party headed by the Osaka prefectural governor is also in the “all-are-ruling-party” structure giving favor to large corporations while discarding the socially weak.
Osaka Governor Hashimoto Toru has a high public profile. He is a lawyer-turned politician and a TV personality. In April 2010, he set up his own political body, the One Osaka (Osaka Ishin-no Kai), aiming for a metropolitan Osaka government like the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. The local party plans to put up more than 100 candidates in Osaka’s local elections.
The media, meanwhile, takes advantage of the popularity of his blunt and casual way of talking to delight viewers, and broadcasts showdowns between his party and existing parties.
However, his party consists of politicians from the existing parties.
A total of 47 politicians in the Osaka Prefectural Assembly and city assemblies of Osaka and Sakai (both government-decreed cities) switched sides to the Osaka Ishin-no Kai from the LDP and the DPJ. The Osaka Ishin-no Kai is the largest faction in the prefectural assembly at present. Based on Hashimoto’s popularity, his local party is seeking to achieve a majority in the prefectural assembly and in the two city assemblies in the April local elections.
The leaflet of an Osaka Ishin-no Kai’s candidate for a prefectural assembly seat has odd stickers inserted in several places. If one peels off the “Osaka Ishin-no Kai” sticker, residents can see the letters “LDP” under the sticker. Under the local party’s logo sticker and under the candidate’s title sticker, the “LDP” is back on the surface of the leaflet. The candidate’s office even hangs a sign saying, “The office of the LDP member of the Osaka Prefectural Assembly.”
A poster of an Osaka Ishin-no Kai candidate for the upcoming Osaka Prefectural Assembly election was found on the house wall of a woman in her 70s, a long-time LDP supporter in Ibaraki City. She put up the poster without knowing that the candidate belongs to the Osaka Ishin-no Kai. She said, “What? Ishin-no Kai? Isn’t that Ishi Kai (medical associations)? Anyway, I’m sure it is the same as the LDP or closely linked to the party.”
More importantly, there is no difference in policies between Ishin-no Kai and such parties as the DPJ, the LDP and the Komei Party. Governor of Osaka Prefecture Hashimoto Toru and Mayor of Osaka City Hiramatsu Kunio have been cutting down on expenditures on social services for their residents by using the need for financial reconstruction as the pretext. These are exactly the same measures adopted by previous Osaka governors and mayors with the support of the “all-are-ruling party” structure. Members of the Ishin-no Kai also belonged to the structure.
Prefectural and city governments backed up by the “all-are-ruling party” setup have spent enormous amounts of tax money on massive infrastructure projects including bay area development, a second-phase construction project of the Kansai International Airport, and construction of more expressways and a Super Hub Port while giving generous subsidies for inviting corporations to locate to the region. These projects ended up in failure, and local taxpayers are forced to shoulder the heavy burden of accumulated debt.
The Ishin-no Kai proposes creating an “Osaka Metropolitan Government,” terminating the region’s dual administrations, the Osaka Prefectural Government and the Osaka City Government. The party in its manifesto says it will consolidate financial resources related to the region in order to intensively invest them in certain projects under a grand design drawn up for the entire region. This means that the “Osaka Metropolitan Government” will centralize its powers and financial resources, and invest them mainly in infrastructure development primarily benefitting large corporations while relinquishing the role of providing social services for its residents.
This is the initiative leading to the full introduction of a “doshu-sei” regional system to reorganize Japan into several regional blocs, a proposal put forward by the financial circles in the Kansai region since 1955. A support group for Osaka Ishin-no Kai was also set up and led by members of the Kansai Association of Corporate Executives. “We will vigorously back up its campaign toward the nationwide local elections,” said Saraya Yusuke, President of Saraya Co., Ltd. The Osaka Ishin-no Kai is, therefore, nothing but a business-first local political party.
