Hyogo Prefecture, It’s Not Right] “Severe Strain” and “Unusual Stress” Created by Hyogo Governor Motohiko Saito’s Transformation

In the first part of the article , “[Too Limitless to Cover for the Governor…] The ‘Overly Irresponsible Background’ of the Successive Exits of Hyogo Governor Motohiko Saito’ s Aides ,” we discussed the extraordinary situation in which one after another, aides of Hyogo Governor Motohiko Saito have been complaining of poor health. The turmoil in the prefectural administration shows no signs of abating.

Hyogo Prefecture is in turmoil after a number of allegations against Governor Motohiko Saito (46) were exposed by prefectural officials. The governor has maintained his firm stance, saying, “My way of taking responsibility is to do my utmost to move the prefectural administration forward. The executives who played a central role in prefectural administration have left, and prefectural employees are exhausted from dealing with the backlog of work and complaints.

The biggest problem is not the governor’s “beggar-thy-neighbor nature” or the “power harassment allegations” exposed in the accusation letter, but the fact that prefectural administration has stagnated as employees have taken their lives because of the governor and the prefectural government’s response. What kind of state is the prefectural government in now? We will examine the situation based on numerous testimonies.

The staff members are confronted daily with an unceasing stream of phone calls to the governor with protests and complaints. The staff in charge of the Public Information and Public Hearing Division responds to more than 200 calls a day. A prefectural official says, “The volume is so large that other departments sometimes respond in support.

The phone rings almost every day, from morning till night. One-third of the calls are for ‘Put Governor Saito on the phone. The staff lament that the stress is so great that they feel like they are going crazy. Not a few of the calls ask us to connect them to the Restoration Association, which opposed the Article 100 Committee. The Public Relations and Public Hearing Division cannot handle such calls, so the assembly secretariat receives them, and a senior Hyogo Restoration Association official sometimes answers them in the waiting room of the assembly, but most of them are about why Governor Saito is not resigning.

Governor Saito has been touting himself as a “reformist,” and in interviews with newspapers last year he praised himself, saying, “I have started and accomplished more than 90% of the promises I made in the gubernatorial election. Although his background as a graduate of the University of Tokyo and a member of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications gives him an image of being a policy wonk, some in the prefecture have voiced doubts.

However, since he has deleted the list of his promises from his website, no one is able to verify whether he has really accomplished them or not. He is no longer in a position to say what he means. He has a history of quickly abandoning such pledges as “doubling the number of critical care beds” for the COVID-19 crisis and “making all vaccines available at medical institutions. Such concealment is attracting criticism.

The measures that were the centerpiece of the policy, “Rebuilding and relocation plan of the prefectural government” and “Remote work to reduce the attendance rate to 40%,” were not well-received by the staff. In fact, there has been a noticeable backlash. The governor’s policies for young people and Generation Z, which include free tuition at prefectural universities, have already been abandoned by Koichi Kobashi, director of the board, and Tomoaki Inomoto, general manager of the general affairs department.

In place of the two executives, Vice Governor Yohei Hattori, who came from a technical background, was in charge of explaining these policies. The governor, who reiterates that ‘there is no problem because we have people to replace him,’ while a vital policy is stalled, can only be thought of as making fun of his staff and the people of the prefecture. In the first place, Hyogo Prefecture has a mountain of serious problems, such as a declining population, and some people are saying, ‘Maybe he has the wrong priorities.

The prefectural government continues to be in turmoil, and some municipalities in the prefecture are questioning its credibility. Takaaki Sakai, mayor of Tamba-Sasayama, who also serves as president of the Hyogo Mayors Association, held a special press conference and noted that “the prefectural government has an important role to play in creating a larger community that cannot be done by the cities, and this requires the leadership of the governor. The local business community is also offering harsh opinions. A representative of a company in Kobe City said, “Young people are not finding jobs at companies in the prefecture.

The percentage of young people working for companies in the prefecture is decreasing year by year, and the outflow of human resources to other prefectures is unstoppable. Hyogo’s core business is manufacturing, but the governor says he will focus on attracting startup companies and IT firms to the prefecture, but this has not been effective. The local business community is not happy with the governor’s “love of new things” attitude, which has been questioned since his first year in office.

The Yomiuri Shimbun reported that 262 people withdrew from the written portion of the prefecture’s general employment examination this fiscal year, with the withdrawal rate reaching 40%. The prefectural official mentioned above simply lamented, “Our biggest concern at the moment is the budget.

The biggest concern at the moment is budgeting. A number of staff members have said that they are ‘not satisfied’ with Governor Saito’s budget decisions. This is especially true of those in management and above. It is understandable that the employees are concerned about the future of the prefectural government, since they are working for a governor who is not sure how long he will last after the departure of key officials. Some of the younger employees have even begun to say that the prefectural government will not progress unless the governor resigns.

When Governor Saito first took office, he mentioned on his social networking service that some children were saying, “Hyogo Prefecture, it’s so embarrassing. He wrote emphatically, “I will definitely change this state of affairs.

Ironically, Hyogo Prefecture has changed. However, one wonders how the governor perceives the fact that the people who feel most “embarrassed” are the employees who support the prefecture.