A movement calling for recall of Kobe Mayor Kazutoshi Sasayama, launched by a civic group in a last-minute attempt to stop the controversial Kobe airport project, appears to have failed.
Signatures of one-third of the local electorate, or some 390,000 Kobe eligible voters, were needed to launch a procedure for holding a recall vote against the mayor.
But while the group wrapped up its signature-collecting campaign on Sunday, it gathered signatures from only 55,917 people by Saturday -- far below the required level.
The campaign has been launched by foes of the airport project after the municipal assembly turned down their request for a plebiscite on the issue.
Members of the group say the 314 billion yen project, nearly 70 percent of which is to be financed by issuing local government bonds, is a waste of taxpayer money at a time when the city's scarce fiscal resources should be used for continuing efforts to rebuild the city after the January 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake.
In the fall of 1998, the group collected signatures from about 300,000 voters calling for a plebiscite on the airport construction.
However, their request for the plebiscite was turned down in November that year.
The city launched airport construction in September 1999.
Antiairport citizens began a movement in January calling for recall of the mayor as a last resort for halting the airport project. But many of the residents who had earlier supported a plebiscite did not take part in the campaign, apparently out of despair now that construction has already begun.