Yet Toru Hashimoto, the 42-year-old mayor of the huge city of Osaka, does not.
There it is spearheading a move, already approved by the Diet, to merge the city of Osaka with the surrounding prefecture.
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Japan's second-largest city, Osaka, for example, is projected to see its population decline by 280, 000 by 2020, and is bracing for a corresponding drop in consumption.
Years later the Japanese sought to make amends for the treatment he had received by sending a delegation to Hong Kong to offer him the freedom of the city of Osaka.
The Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development, an international organization with 30 member countries, including the United States, recently released a report listing 10 cities that face the highest risk from flooding right now: Mumbai, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Miami, Ho Chi Minh City, Calcutta, greater New York City, Osaka-Kibe, Alexandria and New Orleans.
Only in this case, the government of the second largest city in Japan, Osaka, gave its approval to the conference.
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There are plenty of places to gorge yourself in the city, and while Osaka does have an abundance of high-end international and Japanese dining options, most will not have you filing for bankruptcy just yet.
Osaka has the dreary look of a large, northern European city outside of its quaint city center.
Most major Japanese banks store duplicate sets of data in computer centers 600 km apart in Osaka and Tokyo, in case a major quake hits one city.
Takoyaki (dumplings filled with octopus) is a delicacy that originated in Osaka, and you will find little takeaway shopfronts throughout the city, with the best in the Dotombori district in minami (the south of the city).
In Tokyo and Osaka last year, they demonstrated their disgust by electing former comedians as city governors.
One Osaka project, to build a Universal Studios theme park, has been dogged by allegations that the city has been helping one of its private-sector partners, Sumitomo Metal Industries, to avoid the cost of cleaning up the contaminated land on which the park is to be built.
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