On March 3, 2009, the six northern Shiga towns of Torahime, Kohoku, Takatsuki, Kinomoto, Yogo, and Nishi-Azai (虎姫、湖北、高月、木之本、余呉、西浅井) signed a letter of agreement (協定書に調印) to merge with the city of Nagahama on Jan. 1, 2010. The letter signing was witnessed by Governor Yukiko Kada who gave her blessing to the proposed merger.

By March 17, 2009, all the town councils and the Nagahama city council passed a bill to merge. They will then submit an application to merge to Shiga Prefecture for approval. On March 25, Governor Kada will submit a bill to the prefectural assembly to  approve the merger.

This merger was proposed a few years ago, but failed. This time, they reopened merger talks in Oct. 2007 and met eleven times to finally sign the letter of agreement.

The letter of agreement stipulated the following major points:

• The six towns are to merge into Nagahama.
• The name of the newly expanded city will remain “Nagahama.”
• The new city will inherit all the assets and liabilities of the six towns.
• The current total of 93 city and town council members will shrink to 63 after the merger.
• The city hall will remain at the Nagahama City Hall.

After the merger, the total population of the city will be about 124,000, making it Shiga’s second most populous city and largest city in area with about 680 sq. km. I hope each town will retain their old place names (Yogo-cho, Takatsuki-cho, etc.).

I think that Nagahama and Maibara will also merge someday as well. They would make a good couple.