Osaka Gov. Toru Hashimoto on Oct. 23 announced that he will step down as prefectural governor and will run in the Nov. 27 mayoral election of Osaka City. Osaka Mayor Kunio Hiramatsu will also run. Mr. Ichiro Matsui, secretary general of Osaka Ishin-no Kai (renewal association), a local party led by Mr. Hashimoto, will also run in the gubernatorial election the same day. The Democratic Party of Japan and the Liberal Democratic Party are considering fielding Mayor Kaoru Kurata of Ikeda, Osaka Prefecture, as their joint candidate in the gubernatorial election. Mr. Hashimoto hopes to reorganize Osaka Prefecture and Osaka City into something like Tokyo. An Osaka Metropolitan Government would be set up and the current 24 wards in Osaka City would be transformed into eight or nine wards, which would have similar power and functions to Tokyo's 23 wards and have elected mayors.

To help realize his idea, Mr. Hashimoto established the Ishin-no Kai party. It gained a majority in the prefectural assembly and a plurality in the city assembly in the April local elections.

But it is unclear why a reorganization of the present system is needed. It appears that Mr. Hashimoto is most interested in gaining control of Osaka City's power, financial resources and projects. Given his goal of eventually reorganizing Osaka Prefecture and Osaka City into an Osaka Metropolitan Government, Mr. Hashimoto's moves go against the spirit of the 2000 devolution promotion law. Under the law, Osaka City took over powers possessed by the prefectural government to improve large roads and parks and impose certain regulations in urban planning.