Japan Press Weekly

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2009 March 18 - 24 [POLITICS]

Osaka governor’s plan to replace prefectural office under fire

Osaka Prefectural Governor Hashishita Toru on February 17 proposed to the prefectural assembly a plan to relocate the prefectural office to a high rise building on Osaka’s waterfront, causing widespread criticism as a reckless move.

The JCP in the prefectural assembly pointed out that the relocation cost is estimated at 10.5 billion yen (to acquire the Osaka World Trade Center (WTC) building) and revealed that Hashimoto’s argument that the relocation will be financially beneficial for Osaka is untrue.

The Osaka prefectural office is located inside the Osaka Loop Line. The WTC building is on reclaimed land that used to be part of Osaka Bay.

The 256-meter high WTC building was built in 1995, but it has not been as popular as expected. About 70 percent of tenants are Osaka City offices.

Built on the water front, there is a great possibility that the tower will become dysfunctional if a powerful earthquake hits Osaka due to land liquefaction and long-lasting jolts.

According to the Osaka City government, in the period between 1991 and 1995, the area near WTC revealed 13.8 centimeter land subsidence. The WTC building needs further quake resistance measures costing 1.85 billion yen.

The JCP criticizes the governor for making the relocation cost look cheaper.

Hashimoto pointed out that the continued use of the present office building for the next 30 years will cost 62 billion yen, including an anti-quake improvement cost of 8-billion yen. However, the relocation to the new building will cost 41.5 billion yen over the same period, saving 20 billion yen.

The JCP says that is not true and it is too arbitrary an estimate.

The governor also failed to include the cost (about 2.9 billion yen) for research of archaeological assets that are underneath the building.

While Hashimoto expects that the present office building site will be sold at 44.7 billion yen, the JCP revealed in the prefectural assembly that the average land price is just 0.5 million yen and that under the worsening economy, it will be sold at a far lower price than estimated.

Hashimoto was quick in responding to pressures from Kansai’s business circles pushing for major developments in the Bay area and the construction of highways.

Hashimoto is an advocate of a new administrative division system that replaces the present 47 prectures with ten regions. Insisting that Osaka, Hyogo, and other neighboring prefectures should be merged to form the “Kansai region,” he even maintained that Osaka’s government should be abolished in ten years.

Thus, the governor is pushing for the new office plan as a part of the new regional system.

At the prefectural assembly meeting on March 4, JCP member Komatsu Hisashi criticized the governor for his reckless projects to develop the waterfront in close cooperation with the business circles.

Komatsu demanded that the governor’s defective plan and related budget bill over the WTC should be withdrawn and that the matter be opened to public discussion.