From our other sites
The story
Osaka Governor Hirofumi Yoshimura has called on Hokkaido Governor Naomichi Suzuki to sign an agreement toward realizing a “secondary capital” that could take over capital functions in the event of a major disaster. The thread’s discussion ranged from whether Hokkaido is suited as a defense stronghold and issues like heavy snowfall, to distrust of an Osaka-only plan, and even speculation that this could be a step toward a regional-state (dōshūsei) system.
Toward realizing a “secondary capital” that would take over capital functions during a major disaster, Governor Suzuki revealed his intention to sign an agreement with Osaka Prefecture and seek simultaneous designation for both.
At around 10 a.m. on August 27, Governor Suzuki and Sapporo Mayor Akimoto met with Minister for Regional Revitalization Kikawada, who oversees the secondary capital initiative, and handed him a request document calling for the plan’s realization.
The secondary capital initiative aims to serve as a backup hub for capital functions during a major disaster, as well as to ease the concentration of population and economic activity in Tokyo.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
If they're going as far as dispersing ministries, whether the place offers a living environment that satisfies bureaucrats and their families should probably take priority.
Isn't Tokyo more solid?
If anyone seriously attacked Japan, they'd start with a naval blockade to starve us out first, so it wouldn't matter much where the capital is.
They basically admitted Osaka alone can't check every box.
It's more like 'no way we're letting only you have all the fun.'
Do they know full well Hokkaido would never actually get picked and are just saying 'let's cooperate' anyway?
Sounds like inviting the plain-looking girl to a group mixer just to round out the numbers.
So under the 'secondary capital' banner, they want to build up regional capitals?
Hokkai Region — Sapporo
Tohoku Region — Sendai
North Kanto Region — Utsunomiya
South Kanto Region — Chiyoda Ward
Koshinetsu Region — Niigata City
Hokuriku Region — Kanazawa
Tokai Region — Nagoya
Kinki Region — Umeda Ward
Chugoku Region — Hiroshima City
Shikoku Region — Takamatsu
Kyushu Region — Fukuoka City
Ryukyu Region — Naha
Connect everything with a high-speed network so core functions can be taken over in an emergency — isn't that the bare minimum goal here?
Any place that would take damage simultaneously with Tokyo in a Nankai Trough megaquake is out of the question.
Fukuoka: 'Yeah, fair enough, lol' (せやな — Kansai dialect for 'that's right')
Even if it's basically dormant, seems like it'd be fine to just park the Diet (parliament) in Hokkaido.
Seriously, this guy's still around, lol — mixing up the 'secondary capital' plan with the 'Osaka Metropolis' plan.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G8w7sKFaoAA_6qV.jpg
Yoshimura: 'I will never again pursue the Osaka Metropolis plan.'
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfFFN6raoAA6anK.jpg
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HE0WhjdbwAExppv.jpg
Expo infrastructure development plan
They match.
This is a colossal waste of tax money.
Expo, Olympics, Asian Games, secondary capital — they just want an excuse for infrastructure spending.
Not just in Tokyo — right after a disaster, people stay put at first.
The workers needed for recovery stay behind, while the elderly, children, and women evacuate elsewhere and get support.
Even in the Great East Japan Earthquake, because of the radioactive contamination issue, I'd bet quite a few people sent their wives and kids off to another prefecture for safety.
It's to keep Japan running.
In a major disaster, Tokyoites get let go — that's a whole lot of self-importance.
The capital is Kyoto.
What on earth are you on about (written in Kansai dialect).
If anything, hasn't Tokyo become more like Kansai over the past 100 years?
1. Hold Diet sessions in Osaka
2. Strengthen Osaka's fire department
3. Cut taxes for Osaka only
4. Build out Osaka's infrastructure
5. Give Osaka more national tax revenue
Background and Key Points
For readers unfamiliar with Japanese domestic politics: the “secondary capital” (副首都) concept is a legislative push, championed mainly by Osaka’s Ishin no Kai, to designate a city that could take over government functions if Tokyo were crippled by disaster — most pointedly a Nankai Trough megaquake, the government’s worst-case seismic scenario for the Pacific coast. It’s distinct from the decades-old debate over relocating the capital outright, and distinct from Yoshimura’s earlier “Osaka Metropolis plan” (大阪都構想), which would have restructured Osaka City into special wards like Tokyo’s — a proposal Osaka voters rejected twice, in 2015 and 2020, after which Yoshimura publicly vowed not to revive it. Suzuki’s Hokkaido, led by Sapporo, is one of several regional capitals in this conversation, alongside Sendai, Nagoya, Fukuoka and others tied to Japan’s Self-Defense Force bases.
The thread’s real fault line isn’t disaster logistics but motive: posters split between treating Hokkaido as a genuine geographic hedge (distant from a Nankai Trough hit, though vulnerable to Russia-adjacent security concerns and heavy winter snow) versus reading the outreach as Osaka recruiting a token partner to make a one-prefecture push look national — the “plain girl invited to round out the mixer” line captures that skepticism directly.
What outsiders likely miss is that this same push overlaps almost exactly with Osaka’s Expo 2025 infrastructure buildout, which posters flagged as sharing planning documents — suggesting “secondary capital” status functions partly as a durable justification for continued public works spending in Osaka rather than a neutral, nationwide contingency framework.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Newsplus) thread “Osaka Gov. Yoshimura Reaches Out — Agreement with Hokkaido Sought for ‘Secondary Capital,’ Gov. Suzuki: ‘We Need a Multi-Polar Growth Model’.”
Leave a Reply