Osaka's four planned special wards would run a combined surplus of about ¥50 billion a year for a decade after the city is abolished, according to a fiscal simulation presented to the council designing the Osaka metropolis plan. The 12th meeting of the Osaka prefectural and city legal council opened on the 5th.
The four wards will be named Yodogawa, Kita, Chuo and Tennoji, adopting a proposal from Osaka Ishin no Kai — the regional party that has driven the merger plan. The council also agreed on how addresses will be written after the switch.
Addresses keep current ward names in most cases
The current administrative ward name will be inserted between the special ward name and the existing town name. Three cases are exempt: where the special ward and current ward share a name, where the same kanji would run consecutively across the ward and town names, and where the ward name could be confused with a compass direction. Only Nishi Ward falls under the third case.
The surplus figure is a projection, not a settled budget, and the simulation covers the 10 years after the transition. Whether the four wards can hold that balance as service costs and population shift is the question the plan's opponents have pressed.