OSAKA -- The Osaka mayoral campaign kicked off Sunday with all four candidates promising financial reform and a cleansing of a city bureaucracy racked by a year of scandals.

Of the candidates running in the Nov. 27 election, only three are viewed as serious contenders. They are former Mayor Junichi Seki, Megumu Tsuji, a former Democratic Party of Japan member from House of Representatives, and Kiyoshi Himeno, a former Japanese Communist Party Osaka city council member.

The fourth candidate is Koji Matsushita, a 33-year-old former company employee.