“Unhappy Ties” Between Prefecture and City The Osaka metropolis plan was a proposal to abolish the city of Osaka and to realign and merge the districts within it into special wards, similar to the 23 subdivisions of central Tokyo. Between the new metropolitan government and the wards, jurisdiction was to be clearly divided, the former taking full charge of regionwide issues such as urban planning and economic growth strategy, and the latter managing local public services ranging from welfare to household garbage collection. The aim was to streamline the governance of Osaka by eliminating redundancies between the prefecture and the city.