Japan’s Second Capital Law Takes Effect as Osaka Ties Its Bid to the Metropolis Plan

Photo: Sakai Yayoi, Wikimedia Commons, CC0 (file photo, July 2026). Osaka City Hall.

A Japanese law that lets prefectures apply to become a “second capital” able to keep national functions running if Tokyo is hit by disaster took effect on Friday, Oct. 30. Osaka meets the requirements, but one condition links Osaka’s second capital ambitions to the contested plan to dissolve Osaka city into special wards, which voters have rejected twice, according to Kyodo News and the Yomiuri Shimbun.

What the law does

A second capital is meant to allow national and social functions to continue after a large-scale disaster and to shift economic activity away from the Tokyo region, Kyodo reported. Areas that are designated will qualify for regulatory easing and tax incentives meant to draw private investment. The prime minister will designate second capitals based on applications from prefectures, and the law does not limit the number to one. The government is expected to announce its basic approach and a timetable for designation in November.

The law is a pillar of the coalition agreement signed a year ago between Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s Liberal Democratic Party and its junior partner, the Osaka-based Japan Innovation Party (Nippon Ishin), Kyodo said.

Who qualifies

An ordinance approved by the Cabinet on Oct. 27 sets the conditions. A prefecture must account for at least 2.1% of Japan’s gross domestic product and contain a city with at least 1.2% of the national population. Administratively, it must either reorganize a government-designated city into special wards or reach a cooperation agreement between that city and the prefecture. The area must also lie outside zones at risk of severe damage from a major Tokyo-area earthquake or an eruption of Mount Fuji, which straddles Yamanashi and Shizuoka prefectures west of Tokyo, according to Kyodo.

Hokkaido, Aichi, Osaka and Fukuoka meet the requirements, while Hiroshima and Gunma do not, the Yomiuri reported. Hiroshima Governor Mika Yokota said the outcome was regrettable but that she respects the national government’s decision, the paper said.

Source: Kyodo News; Yomiuri Shimbun.

Osaka’s metropolis plan returns

Osaka Governor Hirofumi Yoshimura, who leads the Japan Innovation Party, welcomed the ordinance, saying the first major postwar reform of Japan’s governing structure was beginning, according to the Yomiuri (translated by The Boston Report). He said Osaka would seek full second capital status through the metropolis, or special ward, system, and he aims to hold a third referendum on that plan next spring, the paper reported.

The metropolis plan would dissolve the Osaka city government and reorganize it into special wards, similar to Tokyo. Referendums on it were narrowly defeated in 2015 and 2020, the Asahi Shimbun reported. Yoshimura and Osaka Mayor Hideyuki Yokoyama won snap elections on Feb. 8, 2026, in which major parties did not field opposing candidates. Invalid ballots, including blank votes, reached 10.29% in the governor’s race and a record 13.77% in the mayoral race, the Asahi reported, citing election commissions.

Before a referendum can be held, a statutory council must draft the details of the plan, and both the prefectural and city assemblies must approve it, according to the Asahi. The newspaper also reported skepticism about the timing within Yoshimura’s own party. Yoshimura and Yokoyama called the February election, held on the same day as the national Lower House election, to seek what they described as a mandate for another attempt, and they intend to hold the referendum before their terms end in April 2027, the Asahi said. “We cannot launch the statutory council without the approval of the assembly,” Yoshimura told reporters after the vote. “I want to proceed carefully.”

Critics have questioned that mandate. The invalid ballots totaled 416,783 in the governor’s race and 170,620 in the mayoral race, both sharp increases from previous elections, according to the Asahi. “It is a stretch to claim to have ‘gained the public’s will’ from the results of an election that had no major opposing candidate representing the pros and cons of the metropolis plan,” Masaki Hata, an associate professor of political psychology at Osaka University of Economics, told the paper.

What comes next

Hokkaido, Aichi, Osaka and Fukuoka have said they intend to apply, according to Kyodo. Because the law allows more than one designation, Osaka’s main hurdle is the administrative condition: unless voters approve special wards, it would need to rely on the alternative of a city-prefecture cooperation agreement. Public broadcaster NHK also reported on Osaka’s preparations.

For more Asia-Pacific politics coverage, see TBR’s reports on South Korea and Germany’s new strategic partnership and the Amadeus data breach affecting Japan Airlines passengers.

Sources

• Kyodo News: Law to establish “second capital” to back up Tokyo goes into effect
• Yomiuri Shimbun (Japanese): Osaka meets second-capital requirements
• Asahi Shimbun: Yoshimura fast-tracks divisive Osaka metropolis plan after win

Additional sources

• Cabinet Secretariat of Japan: Oct. 27 release (Japanese)
• NHK (Japanese)