<figure id="attachment_384457" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-384457" style="width: 1024px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="4e0b25c9"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/07/41a94ac85ddc2c7f3ddf6a89844931f0.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-384457" class="wp-caption-text">Governor Motohiko Saito of Hyogo Prefecture holds a press conference on July 24. On that day, he revealed that Mr. B, who was mentioned in the written accusation, had passed away.</figcaption></figure>
<p> On July 7, Mr. A, director general of the Nishi-Harima Prefectural Office, who had filed a written accusation against Hyogo Governor Motohiko Saito (46) regarding power harassment and improper spending at the Hanshin-Orix professional baseball championship parade and other events, committed suicide. Governor Saito initially dismissed the written accusation as &#8220;a pack of lies&#8221; and &#8220;slander,&#8221; and only conducted an internal investigation and disciplined Mr. A. Later, a group of prefectural assembly members conducted their own investigation.</p>
<p> Subsequently, prefectural assembly members conducted their own investigation, which uncovered numerous allegations of power harassment of subordinates and accepting gifts from companies on inspection tours, which were pointed out in the accusation document. The sad news came in the middle of a full-scale investigation that had begun in June, with the establishment of the &#8220;Hundred Articles Committee&#8221; for the first time in 51 years to address Governor Saito&#8217;s allegations.</p>
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<h3> The deceased Mr. A and Mr. B were not named in the database announcing their deaths.</h3>
<p> In addition to Mr. A, there was another person who passed away.</p>
<p> Mr. B was involved in the Hanshin-Orix professional baseball championship parade held on November 23 last year. The parade was not funded by the prefectural government, but was attempted to be held through crowdfunding, but it fell far short of the target because it did not receive sufficient donations from companies and other parties. According to the accusation document, he died on April 20, apparently suffering from depression due to the difficulty in coordinating with the parties involved.</p>
<p> Both Mr. A and Mr. B were employees of Hyogo Prefecture. If they had developed depression as a result of their work, they could have applied for workers&#8217; compensation, but according to a prefectural official who is currently working for the prefecture, there was &#8220;still no official acknowledgement of their deaths. The prefectural official revealed, &#8220;There are news of the deaths of prefectural employees.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> Whenever there is an obituary of a prefectural employee, it appears in the prefectural database, but not for Mr. A or Mr. B. When there is an obituary, it appears in the database for the person in charge. Whenever there is an obituary, the employee in charge is notified of the death and the obituary is posted in the database.</span></p>
<p> Not only were there no obituaries for Mr. A and Mr. B. One staff member revealed, &#8220;Mr. B, who passed away in April, has not yet been reported.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> Mr. B, who died in April, had children who were still going to school. This is not part of our job, and it is just customary, but when a staff member with young children dies, we collect and give the bereaved family&#8217;s scholarship funds on a voluntary basis. In this case, too, we tried to collect the money by calling on volunteers, but the upper management stopped us from doing so.</span></p>
<p> On July 23, FRIDAY Digital sent a letter of inquiry to Hyogo Prefecture asking why obituaries of Mr. A and Mr. B were not posted in a database accessible to staff members, and received the following response.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> The answer was as follows: &#8220;The posting of obituaries in the database is based on the wishes of the families, and is not a uniform posting of information on all employees.</span></p>
<p> Was it related to the fact that FRIDAY Digital issued a letter of inquiry regarding Mr. B&#8217;s obituary, and that numerous more media outlets and council members bombarded the issue with questions? Immediately after the letter of inquiry was sent out, Mr. B&#8217;s obituary was posted in the database. It would be highly unusual for a prefectural government employee&#8217;s obituary not to be posted for three months after his death, and only after a great deal of commotion had arisen.</p>
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<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" The prefecture claims that Mr. A was not &quot;demoted&quot; but &quot;transferred..."></div>
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<figure id="attachment_384460" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-384460" style="width: 935px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="ec8fcbf2"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/07/c67b657909123beb2270a0c7ed5ed9df.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-384460" class="wp-caption-text">The description of the championship parade in the accusatory statement prepared by Mr. A. The &#8220;section chief in charge of the parade&#8221; is Mr. B.</figcaption></figure>
<h3> No severance pay was paid to the deceased Mr. A.</h3>
<p> This is not the only problem with the deceased Mr. A and Mr. B. Another prefectural government official revealed in a hushed voice, &#8220;The disciplinary action was put on hold.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> I have not heard that the severance pay was paid to Mr. A, the former director of the Prefectural Citizens Bureau whose disciplinary action was put on hold. Mr. A had indicated his intention to retire at the end of March. However, it was on March 27 that Governor Saito stated that he was &#8220;considering legal proceedings&#8221; against Mr. A, including charges of discredit and defamation. At a press conference at that time, the governor did not approve Mr. A&#8217;s retirement, put his retirement on hold, and suspended him for three months in May.&#8221;</span></p>
<p> What possible reason could the prefecture have for not recognizing Mr. A&#8217;s retirement and continuing to employ him, which he had not requested?</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> If he had retired at the mandatory retirement age, he would have received his retirement allowance and other benefits as planned, but by making it a &#8220;demotion,&#8221; it could be seen as a reduction in the full amount of retirement allowance he was originally entitled to receive.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> Therefore, if we publicly criticize the governor, we may be asked, &#8220;Will we be subjected to retaliation as well?　What will happen to my wife and children if I do so? What will happen to my wife and children? We are being silenced by the full amount of our retirement benefits,&#8221; said one of the above-mentioned employees.</span></p>
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<p> Another prefectural employee was horrified by the &#8220;employee information system,&#8221; which notifies employees of transfers.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> The accuser, Mr. A, was transferred from the Nishi-Harima Prefectural Citizens Bureau to the General Affairs Department after the governor&#8217;s press conference on March 27.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> His name still remains in the staff information system, but what makes him different from other staff members is that Mr. A&#8217;s database does not contain any phone number or other contact information. He is treated as uncontactable. I am terrified that if I go against the prefectural governor, I will be &#8220;kept in captivity.</span></p>
<p> FRIDAY Digital sent a letter of inquiry to the Hyogo Prefectural General Affairs Department&#8217;s Personnel Division, asking what they planned to do about the payment of retirement benefits after Mr. A&#8217;s retirement was put on hold and he committed suicide in his position as a prefectural employee.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> The answer was as follows: &#8220;While it is true that his retirement is pending, it is not true that he has been demoted. As for the severance payment, we will proceed with the procedure as soon as the necessary documents are in order.&#8221;</span></p>
<p> According to the prefectural government&#8217;s response, Mr. A, who was the head of the Nishi-Harima Prefectural Citizens Bureau, was transferred to a position attached to the General Affairs Department on March 27 and remained attached to the General Affairs Department as of April 1, but his grade was lowered due to the prefecture&#8217;s position retirement system. The prefecture claims that it was a &#8220;transfer&#8221; and not a &#8220;demotion,&#8221; but can we take this at face value?</p>
<p> Even if Hyogo Prefecture&#8217;s decision not to accept Mr. A&#8217;s resignation was correct, how will the prefecture explain its decision to offer him continued employment, which he had not requested? The prefecture official testified, <span class="strongInContent">&#8220;There is no way he would have wanted to continue his employment.</span></p>
<p> In addition, since retirement pay is determined by the grade at the time of retirement, if he was &#8220;not demoted,&#8221; as the prefecture responded, then it should be calculated based on the amount he would have received as director of the Nishi-Harima Prefectural Office. Is Hyogo Prefecture really preparing to pay that amount? The answer to this question is clear: &#8220;We have to watch them very carefully, or we will be afraid of what they will do to us. Another official added, &#8220;The bureau chief (Mr. A) has taken the computer away from us.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> I heard that the director (Mr. A) had his computer taken away from him and was forced to search through 14 years&#8217; worth of logs. I sensed the strong will and pressure of the prefectural authorities to use the governor&#8217;s powerful authority to investigate his surroundings, seize his weakness, and silence him at any cost.</span></p>
<p> The testimony of prefectural officials is essential to getting to the bottom of the situation, but it is highly doubtful that the truth will be properly reported now that they are under such blatant pressure.</p>
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<figure id="attachment_384459" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-384459" style="width: 1676px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="1f3d1001"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/07/1f20a8276031a54dff68cf97b5377579.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-384459" class="wp-caption-text"> Document accusing Governor Saito of power harassment</figcaption></figure>


 Kyodo News

 The Hyogo prefectural government is under pressure from the top, with employees saying that if they publicly criticize the governor, they too will face retaliatory action. ...... The obituaries of the two deceased prefectural officials were not included in the database, as they should have been.

If you defy him, you will be &#8220;kept in captivity. &#8230;&#8230;&#8221; Prefectural officials feel &#8220;blatant pressure&#8221; from Governor Saito of Hyogo Prefecture.

If you defy him, you will be “kept in captivity. ……” Prefectural officials feel “blatant pressure” from Governor Saito of Hyogo Prefecture.

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