Hokkaido Shimizu Town Council rejects town name change referendum ordinance

On the 11th, the Shimizu Town Council voted at its plenary session on a referendum ordinance asking people for or against the town's proposed name change, which Hokkaido's Shimizu Town is aiming to change to ``Tokachi Shimizu Town.'' The result was an equal vote of 6 in favor and 6 against, and the proposal was rejected by the chairman.

In response to the rejection, Mayor Yasuhiro Tsuji said, ``It's disappointing because I wanted the townspeople to make a decision (by vote).I'd like to take this as a mayor's proposal for now.''He indicated that he would not consider re-proposing the proposal.

Mayor Tsuji proposed changing the town's name in April 2025 by adding the well-known name "Tokachi" to increase the brand power of local products and promote regional development. If there was a majority of votes in favor in the referendum, the plan was to move forward with the process of changing the town's name in October 2017, but everything came to nothing.

The proposed ordinance will be discussed at a special committee meeting on June 2nd. The proposal was rejected by a narrow margin, with opinions such as ``insufficient explanation to residents.'' For this reason, at the plenary session that day, members in favor of the ordinance proposed an amendment to postpone the enforcement date of the ordinance in order to secure more opportunities for explanations, but it was not passed.

Mayor Tsuji said that the town would not actively pursue a new proposal, but did not deny the necessity of changing the town's name, hinting that ``in the future, if there are voices from the townspeople asking for a change.'' [Suzuki Hitoshi]