More people oppose Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto’s plan to give the city the same administrative structure and status as Tokyo than support it, according to a new Kyodo News survey.

In the telephone survey conducted Saturday and Sunday, 47.5 percent of the Osaka residents who responded said they oppose Hashimoto’s plan to integrate the administrative functions of the Osaka prefectural and municipal governments and reorganize the city into five wards in April 2017.

About 36.7 percent said they support the administrative reform plan.

The city will hold a referendum on the plan May 17.

The results of a survey in mid-March were much closer, with 43.1 percent for the plan and 41.2 percent against it.

The survey contacted 1,480 households with Osaka voters, of which 1,015 provided valid answers.

The survey was conducted after Ishin no To (Japan Innovation Party), whose Osaka affiliate is headed by Hashimoto, decided Saturday to expel a member of the Lower House from the party for skipping a Diet vote on the budget last month without good reason.

Hashimoto has been pushing to overhaul the structure of the city to cut costs by ending the administrative overlap between the prefecture and the city. He campaigned for the initiative first as Osaka’s governor and now as the city’s mayor.