Tokyo, May 18 (IANS): Residents of Osaka on Monday voted against a plan to turn the administration of Japan's second largest city into a Tokyo-style metropolitan government, Efe news agency reported.

The ambitious initiative by Mayor Toru Hashimoto, from the conservative Japan Innovation Party, sought to end the economic and demographic decline of Osaka, for centuries a major port and economic centre.

On Sunday, 1.4 million people voted in the referendum, 50.4 percent against and 49.6 percent in support of the proposal.

Hashimoto had proposed breaking up and reassembling 24 districts, including Osaka, into five zones, to improve infrastructure and public services, some of which, he said, would be privatised.

This administrative model, the local government argued, would avoid the current overlap between the prefecture and city governments and save up to $22.7 billion in taxes over two decades.

Following the failure of his initiative, Hashimoto announced his retirement from politics at the end of his current term in December.