Nagoya Mayor Takashi Kawamura will begin collecting signatures Aug. 27 in a bold move to recall the municipal assembly.
The mayor's support group filed a petition Tuesday with the city's election management committee to begin the recall process.
Kawamura, who won in a landslide in the mayoral race in April 2009 with a record 510,000 votes, pledged during the campaign to cut the municipal tax by 10 percent and halve the assembly.