Japan's cabinet has released the criteria a city must meet to be named the country's backup capital, a designation meant to keep government running if a disaster cripples Tokyo. Four prefectures qualify, and the field is wider than the Osaka politicians who pushed the idea first might have hoped.
The concept is known as a fukushuto (vice-capital). Proponents argue that a major earthquake or an eruption of Mt. Fuji could leave government institutions in Tokyo unable to function, and that a second site would give the state somewhere to operate from.
The criteria
A qualifying city must sit in a prefecture that holds at least 1.2 percent of Japan's population and accounts for at least 2.1 percent of national GDP. It must lie far enough from Tokyo to fall outside the area affected by any disaster that disables the capital, and it must have facilities for at least half of the 28 classifications of national government field offices.
The distance rule rules out Yokohama. Japan's second-largest city sits about 30 minutes south of the capital, so a disaster severe enough to damage one would likely hit the other.
Osaka, Aichi, Fukuoka and Hokkaido meet the criteria. Legislators from those prefectures are expected to push for Osaka, Nagoya, Fukuoka and Sapporo respectively, though the current framework does not explicitly bar more than one city from holding the status.
How the idea moved
The Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Innovation Party), which holds considerable influence in Osaka, led the push for a vice-capital. The Liberal Democratic Party took up the idea while seeking support from Nippon Ishin voters in a potential coalition, and the two sides agreed to move forward with it last summer. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's cabinet has now issued the criteria.
More than 40,000 government employees work in Tokyo's Kasumigaseki district, where most central government facilities are concentrated, according to the National Personnel Authority. A vice-capital would not replicate every office and worker, but it would require some redundancy, and the hiring and infrastructure that come with it would be paid for out of tax revenue.
For the city chosen, that spending would amount to a significant economic boost and give its local legislators more political weight. The cabinet is expected to spend about a year drafting the fundamental policies for how a vice-capital would operate, with those policies slated for presentation next October, before any site is selected.