The landslide victories scored Sunday by the Osaka Ishin no Kai (One Osaka) local political group in the gubernatorial and mayoral elections give its new national counterpart a strong advantage in recruiting for next summer's Upper House election and have the establishment parties on their heels.
They also give outgoing Mayor Toru Hashimoto more national clout as the major parties in the Diet wonder what his next move will be, whether he will soon come to Tokyo in some capacity, and whether the Ishin movement he founded will spread to other prefectures.
Osaka Ishin no Kai is the Japanese name of both Hashimoto's new national party and his local political group, except the national party name uses the hiragana for Osaka rather than the kanji.
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