Since the 1990's when the waves of deregulation and decentralization came to have strong impacts on many aspects of society including education, the relationship between the board of education and the local political leader has been one of the sensitive issues in Japan, because there are contradictory views on their relationship. There is a claim that the board of education ought to be independent and free of any political influences. On the other hand, there is a view that both are expected to collaborate in the original design of educational administration system. This paper is an attempt to examine the relationship between the board of education and the political leader in local educational administration, based upon a case of Osaka city in 2012, where the emergence of the new mayor has brought about a variety of educational reforms. They are mostly based upon his election manifesto, and they are aiming to neutralize the power of the board of education and reinforce the role of political leadership in the field of local educational administration. The series of radical educational reforms the Mayor started immediately after he took office in December 2011 are, the enactment of City Ordinances for education, the revision of the Basic Plan for Educational Promotion, and the introduction of school choice in the public sector, all of which the author was engaged in considering as a member of the board of education. Although it appears that the educational reforms were strongly led by the Mayor, their draft plans were created by the board of education, and the whole developing process was basically driven by the initiative of the board of education owing to their professional knowledge. Masatsugu Ito identified three different model of local educational governance; activation of the board of education model, the general administration model, and the market/choice model. According to the three models developed by him, what has been witnessed in Osaka city is a hybrid of the general administration model and the market/choice model. As the public attention focuses on radical educational reforms in Osaka city, the dominant interpretations of what happened in Osaka city in 2012 is that politics intervened so radically that school education was at risk losing the autonomy of educational administration. However, what was witnessed in 2012 in Osaka city is that the board of education is able to prepare detoxified, milder policies against the pressure of politically driven educational reforms, and also that it is able to build the partnership with the political leader with all conflicts or frictions in existence. Osaka City board of education has shown its presence as one functioning part of the partnership in educational reforms in a powerful political sentiment.