 Hashimoto favored closing Itami Airport and making Kansai International Airport the sole air hub for the region.He proposed turning the Itami site into an "International Campus Freedom City" for foreign students and academics.Hashimoto also favored selling Osaka Prefecture's 49 percent stake in Osaka Prefectural Urban Development, the operator of the Semboku Rapid Railway, and his party reached a deal to sell this stake to Lone Star Funds in 2013, but four of Hashimoto's party members in the prefectural assembly rebelled over approving the sale, leading to the defeat of the measure.