Ryōsuke Takashima

On 1 December 2023, the Ashiya City Council rejected Takashima’s proposal to appoint former superintendent of education of Saitama City Mayumi Hosoda as the successor to Toshiko Uetsuki on the board of education at a plenary session. The proposal failed to gain a majority vote, which was the first time that a personnel-related bill had been rejected in Ashiya since 1999. The Ashiya Board of Education consists of four members, who are appointed by the mayor with the consent of the council. As the previous superintendent of education, Uetsuki’s term was to end in December, Takashima recommended Hosoda as her successor. Hosoda had served as superintendent of education in Saitama City for five years from June 2018 and has also been a lecturer at the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Public Policy, with which Ashiya City concluded a partnership agreement in September of that year. In the plenary session, seven councillors from the LDP and Komeito parties voted in favour of the proposal, while ten councillors from the Japanese Communist Party, Nippon Ishin no Kai, Ashiya Citizens’ Future Party and independents voted against it; three members of the Sanseito abstained. In opposing speeches, four councillors cited reasons such as concerns that living far away would make it difficult to attend twice-monthly committee meetings and local events, and doubts over whether Ashiya’s education would be prioritised given its many other roles.^[15][16]