litmus test for
UG先生に教えていただいた記事から取り上げます。
大阪の知事選・市長選が行われ、大阪維新の会が2勝を収めました。
Administrative reform candidates win Osaka governor, mayor elections
Two candidates fielded by the Osaka Restoration Association won gubernatorial and mayoral elections in Osaka on Sunday on the platform of a renewed bid to reorganize the Osaka city administration, after voters rejected the plan earlier this year, Kyodo News projections showed.
Incumbent Ichiro Matsui, 51, secured a second four-year term as governor of the western Japan prefecture, while former House of Representatives member Hirofumi Yoshimura, 40, won the Osaka mayoral election.
The high-profile double election was seen as a litmus test for the regional political group's key policy of reorganizing Osaka city into a metropolitan government similar to Tokyo's, after city residents rejected the plan in a May referendum by a narrow margin.
http://newsonjapan.com/html/newsdesk/article/114366.php
“litmus test for”を取り上げます。この表現から、酸性かアルカリ性かを判断する「リトマス試験紙」が思い浮かべられますが、どのような意味で使われているのでしょうか。G4（大修館書店）で確認してみますと “litmus test [of, for]”で「〔…の〕試金石[of, for]」とありました。LDOCEでは “one detail that is examined in order to help you make a decision about how suitable or acceptable someone or something is”と定義づけられています。
以前に取り上げられている記事では、「試金石」に相当する英語表現について取り上げられています。
