KOBE (Kyodo) — Hyogo Gov. Motohiko Saito on Thursday faced a no-confidence motion by prefectural assembly members over abuse of power allegations, with the disapproval call set to be adopted some six months after a subordinate first raised the issue.
The focus is on whether the 46-year-old head of the western Japan prefecture, of which Kobe is the capital, will opt to dissolve the assembly within 10 days of the passage or to resign, even though he insists on completing his term. If he does neither, he will automatically lose his job.
Ahead of the motion’s submission, all assembly groups called for his resignation, including the biggest Liberal Democratic Party and the second-largest Japan Innovation Party, which both supported Saito in the previous gubernatorial race in 2021.
The scandal emerged after the official, who has since died by apparent suicide, released a document accusing Saito of abusing his power, including by yelling at staff and soliciting gifts from local businesses.
Although the official reported the misconduct to the prefectural government’s whistleblower office, he was reprimanded with a three-month suspension after an internal investigation concluded that the document contained defamatory claims.
The move sparked a controversy, with some assembly members questioning the neutrality of the investigation.
The assembly set up a special committee to look into the case in June, but the whistleblower was found dead less than two weeks before being scheduled to testify before the committee in July.
The labor union for prefectural government officials has urged Saito to resign over the scandal, while the deputy governor quit to take responsibility for the trouble caused by the issue.
During the committee’s questionings, Saito defended the disciplinary action taken against the whistleblower, asserting it was justifiable as the document contained false allegations.
The committee’s survey covering all prefectural employees found that more than 40 percent of the respondents said they had either witnessed or heard of the governor’s abuse of power.
Saito, who joined the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications in 2002 after graduating from the University of Tokyo, won the Hyogo gubernatorial race in 2021, succeeding a predecessor who had been in the post for the previous 20 years.
Japan’s Hyogo governor faces no-confidence motion over bullying accusations
