He resigned as governor of Osaka prefecture a few months before completing his first term of four years and ran for the less-prestigious, less-influential position of Osaka mayor, while supporting the campaign of his close ally Ichiro Matsui for the vacated gubernatorial position. Both defeated their nearest rivals by huge margins in the November elections.

Hashimoto’s decision to run against the incumbent mayor of Osaka city while choosing his ally to run for the safe gubernatorial position he had vacated was a masterful strategic move. Incumbent Osaka Mayor, Kunio Hiramastu, had strongly opposed Governor Hashimoto’s proposal to make Osaka’s administrative structures similar to those of Tokyo, through forming ‘Osaka Metropolis’. Under this plan the governments of Osaka prefecture and its two largest cities — Osaka city and Sakai city — would be reorganised from three administrative units into one. Hashimoto argued that, especially under the current financially difficult conditions, the overlapping functions, administrative inefficiencies and duplication of the current structure should be ironed out through reorganising Osaka into one metropolitan government with a small number of special administrative wards each with an elected head. This restructuring would enable Osaka to act as a single entity, leading to consolidation of revenues and efficient economic decision making to help stimulate Osaka’s economy overall.

Osaka’s economy, like Japan’s national economy, has been stagnant for many years and is significantly lagging behind its traditional rival, Tokyo. Historically, the Osaka region was the main centre of Japan’s trade and commerce. But Tokyo took commercial advantage in the postwar period with most corporate headquarters locating in the nation’s political capital, making Tokyo also the financial and commercial capital. Osaka prefecture still boasts a total gross domestic product several times larger than some of the world’s industrialised nations and is well-endowed with large industrial and business houses competing in global markets. Osaka city has the third largest population after Tokyo and Yokohama cities, both in the greater Tokyo Metropolitan region.

To make Osaka a more attractive commercial centre and rebuild its financial health, Hashimoto, in alliance with the new governor of Osaka, has vowed to restructure the current administrative units of Osaka. He enjoys a firm popular mandate as he fought and overwhelmingly won the election on this platform.

This administrative reorganisation needs support from prefectural and city assembly members and amendments to the Local Autonomy Law through a national parliamentary process. Hashimoto is confident that he will achieve his declared aim. To this end, in 2010 he formed a local party called Osaka Ishin no kai (Osaka Restoration Association, or One Osaka). A successful local party in Japanese politics is a rare phenomenon, as most local leaders are supported by the major national political parties during local elections. But Osaka Ishin no Kai ran many candidates at this year’s unified local elections in the Osaka region and gained a majority in the prefectural assembly and more than one third of seats in the Osaka city assembly. This is a solid outcome for a nascent political party.

Moreover, Hashimoto has high-placed allies including the fourth-term governor of Tokyo, Shintaro Ishihara, and some other governors and mayors around the country. He also has support from some leaders in national-level political parties including the Liberal Democratic Party, the party that ruled Japan post-war for over half a century and is now the main opposition party. Even some ministers of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan are receptive to Hashimoto’s proposal and indicated that they would have meetings with him after he took office (which occurred on Monday, 19 December).

In one sense Hashimoto is a maverick politician who began his political career when he stood successfully for the Osaka gubernatorial position in 2007. Yet he is a highly-popular leader and although a city mayor, he is already a national figure and both the media and national leaders are watching him closely. Many have dubbed him ‘Hascist’ (Hashimoto style fascism) because of his populist political style and lack of policy substance, but obviously he has strong following in the Osaka region and straw polls elsewhere suggest many outside Osaka endorse his ideas and reformist agenda.

Hashimoto is not the only sub-national politician challenging central authority and traditional power structures that seem unable to function in an economically-recessed Japan operating in the contemporary globalised world. For years Tokyo Governor Ishihara has locked horns with the national government and more recently a similar trend is visible in Aichi Prefecture and its main city, Nagoya. Earlier this year, Aichi prefecture elected as governor Hideaki Omura, and Nagoya returned Takashi Kawamura as mayor. The Kawamura–Omura team is oriented much like the Hashimoto–Matsui team in Osaka. They all seek greater policy autonomy, cost-cutting, efficiency from streamlining local bureaucracies and ultimately improvement of local economies.

Localities have raised the challenge because national political paralysis and policy deficits have deepened the people’s dissatisfaction with mainstream parties and national leaders. In the immediate post-war period the Tokyo–Nagoya–Osaka belt led national recovery through industrialisation and swift economic growth. Will this Tokyo–Nagoya–Osaka revolt usher in a new political culture in Japan? Certainly, these developments must be watched closely.

Purnendra Jain is Professor in Asian Studies at the University of Adelaide and currently Visiting Professor at Tokyo University.