Regarding the front-page Oct. 1 article "Hashimoto's Osaka merger dream in jeopardy": I think it should come as no surprise that a candidate backed by the Japan Restoration Party was defeated in the Sakai mayoral election held last Sunday.
First and foremost, is there anything beneficial about the "Osaka Metropolitan Policy," which has been one of the pillars of Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto's campaign speeches.
The unique and peculiar administration system of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government should not be viewed as a model for municipal government, which I believe has a lot of problems, including wasting taxpayers' money. That this system is maintained seems attributable to the burgeoning population and economic power that draws more and more tax revenue.
If the city of Osaka adopted the same system, it is evident that more taxpayers' money would be wasted even though the Osaka mayor's political clout was bolstered.
The election outcome evidently shows that a lot of voters in Osaka have realized how ambiguous Hashimoto's policies are.
The opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are the writer's own and do not necessarily reflect the policies of The Japan Times.
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