On Nov. 1, Osaka residents will vote for the second, and hopefully last, time on whether to merge the city*s administrative areas into four large, semiautonomous wards.

The vast majority of news coverage of the issue in the Kansai region has been focused on arguments for or against a merger from the point of view of Osaka politics.

Local politicians, academics, financial experts and lawyers, along with news commentators and even comedians from the Yoshimoto Kogyo talent stable 〞 who play, or overplay, the role of the befuddled ※ordinary voter§ 〞 can be seen trying to make sense of detailed financial graphs and wordy PowerPoint presentations used by invited guests to prove their arguments or disprove their opponents* claims.