OSAKA -- Osaka goes to the polls this Sunday to elect a new mayor. But Satomi Ando, 43, who runs a small printing business in the Tenma district, could care less.
"None of those running represents the people of Osaka. They just represent their parties or a few vested interests. So, why vote?" she asked.
Since 1951, all of Osaka's mayors have come from the ranks of city bureaucrats, and the voter turnout has dropped. In the 1999 mayoral election, which re-elected Takafumi Isomura for a second term, turnout was just around 35 percent.
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