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The story
Osaka Prefecture’s Izumisano City and Sennan City have begun weighing a possible merger against a backdrop of population decline, it was learned on the 4th. The two cities reportedly plan to launch a joint study group on the merger as early as this coming January, inviting neighboring municipalities to join, and intend to seek financial support by arguing that a merger would help strengthen Osaka Prefecture’s bid to become a “secondary capital.” On 5ch’s News Flash+ thread, discussion ranged over why Osaka has so many municipalities, the gap in fiscal strength between them, and the lessons of the earlier “Heisei Great Merger.”
10/4 (Sun) 15:40
Kyodo News
It was learned on the 4th, from sources familiar with the matter, that Osaka’s Izumisano City and Sennan City have begun considering a merger. They plan to launch a study group on the merger as early as January next year and invite neighboring municipalities to take part. The move stems from an expectation that population decline will make it hard for either city to survive on its own going forward. The two cities intend to appeal to Osaka Prefecture, which is seeking “secondary capital” designation, by arguing that a merger would help strengthen that secondary-capital function — and to request financial support in return.
Source: topics.smt.docomo.ne.jp / Original article here
What people said
It's not like Osaka gets the most money from the national government, you know?
Osaka's national tax collection is over 7 trillion yen.
Maybe, but southern Kanto has plenty of municipalities too — especially Tokyo, where outside the 23 wards, the Tama area is packed with tiny municipalities.
Mergers don't happen unless there's an actual benefit to them. Even in the last couple of mergers, the support funds just ended up wasted on pointless stuff.
Even if the population grows, the land area grows too — the financial struggles don't go away.
Remote areas already get support from the national government, don't they?
There are way too many "parasite towns" standing out these days — I think the national government should get a bit more involved. (´・ω・｀)
Water utilities run on a user-pays principle, so that's only indirectly related to whether the overall finances improved.
Under the current Izumisano mayor, the city actually got itself out of "fiscal reconstruction" status. Got anything else?
Even during the Heisei Great Merger, wealthy municipalities didn't want to merge, so you ended up with weird non-contiguous "exclave" mergers.
You mean Tobishima Village?
Any municipality with big taxpayers or corporations inside its borders isn't going to merge if it means funneling that money elsewhere.
Then Kita-Osaka (North Osaka) City would be Hokusetsu plus Kita-Kawachi, and…
And as always, Sakai City alone opts out and stays independent.
Tax revenue that should've gone toward development got monopolized by a handful of municipalities, and then one of them handed out ¥100,000 per resident like it had cash to burn — of course Izumisano would be furious watching that.
Senshu is basically like Minami-Chita (in Aichi Prefecture) — Minami-Chita's declining too, similar story there.
The textile industry used to be big there, but it probably can't survive in Japan anymore. A company I used to deal with sold off its factory machinery to Southeast Asia and now gets by on real estate rental instead.
Since around the start of the 21st century, the supermarket in front of the JR limited-express stop closed down, sat as a ruin for a while, then just sat as an empty lot — that's how far gone the place is. If you drive the national highway from Osaka toward Wakayama, the shops basically disappear once you pass the southern part of Izumisano. Honestly, Iwade City, over the mountain pass, is more convenient than Sennan.
Nah, that's not it. They just want subsidies. Not that every single person from Osaka has that kind of petty mindset, though.
Fiscal simulation for Osaka City and Osaka Prefecture
https://gzo.ai/i/RGDboHJ.png
https://gzo.ai/i/5sWITYI.jpg
Background and Key Points of This Topic
Osaka Prefecture has been pressing the national government for “secondary capital” status, positioning itself as a counterweight to Tokyo’s overconcentration, and this merger talk is riding that same wave. On municipal mergers generally, the number of municipalities fell sharply during the 2000s “Heisei Great Merger,” but in many cases how the support funds were spent drew criticism — and in this thread too, posters pointed out that “even in the last merger, the support money just got wasted on pointless stuff.” It’s also worth noting, since it’s an easy point of confusion, that Osaka City’s 24 administrative wards and Tokyo’s 23 special wards actually differ in institutional authority — such as whether they have their own ward mayor or assembly — so population and area comparisons alone don’t capture the real picture. This exchange also shows how differences in fiscal strength between municipalities sit at the heart of the merger debate.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (News Flash+) thread “[Osaka] Two Osaka Cities Considering Merger, Eyeing Secondary-Capital Status, Requesting Financial Support.”
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