No Mayor or Deputy Mayor”… “Surprising Crisis Management” in Abiko City, Chiba, the topic of discussion after the distribution of “Nights” was terminated.

Abiko Mayor and Deputy Mayor are often absent.

On February 19, it was announced that Nobuyuki Hanawa, 46, of the comic duo “Knights,” who is known for his “Yaho de Chosashita” (“I looked it up on Yahoo!”), was terminated as the hometown ambassador of Abiko City, Chiba Prefecture, in a video broadcast.

The reason was not due to Hanawa’s facial injury as reported, but because of Abiko City’s tight financial situation and the lack of growth in the number of views, which led to a cut of 1.84 million yen in production costs.

Immediately after the news of the termination, Hanawa said on Nippon Broadcasting System’s “Knights the Radio Show”: “For a while, the number of views was down by a hundred.

[Joon] had, at one point, a hundred or so views. There are about 200 Abiko City employees. Why is it less than that?　First of all, let’s all watch it!

Abiko City stunned the popular comic actor, but Abiko City Council member Mayo Shibata is dismayed, saying, “I have been stunned many times by the city government.

Last March, the mayor and deputy mayor went to Koshien together to watch a high school baseball game. When we requested information, we found that last year alone, the mayor went to Koshien on April 12, May 3-6, June 2, 15, and 29. We did not know whether the mayor and the deputy mayor were working together or not. We did not know whether they were working together or not, but the city’s top and number two officials were absent together too often. What if some natural catastrophe or other event were to occur?”

When we checked the schedules of Mayor Junichiro Hoshino (67) and former Deputy Mayor Akira Aoki (72, at the time) on March 20 and 30, we found the following information.

[Cheering for Chuo Gakuin High School at the 96th Spring High School Baseball Tournament at Koshien Stadium].

In the national government, either the prime minister or the chief cabinet secretary, the number two official in the administration, must be in Tokyo. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government, the capital of Japan, has four deputy governors to prepare for crisis management. Article 167 of the Local Autonomy Law states

Vice-governors shall assist the head of an ordinary local public entity, take charge of policy and planning under the order of the head of an ordinary local public entity, supervise the affairs of the officials who are its subsidiary organs, and represent the head of an ordinary local public entity in the performance of his/her duties as separately provided for in the law.

The same can be said of the deputy mayor. The deputy mayor is the first temporary deputy who takes over for the mayor when the mayor becomes ill or otherwise unable to perform his or her duties.

However, in Abiko, the top mayor and the number two mayor were both away from the city 550 kilometers away in Koshien, Japan. Moreover, their absence was not limited to Koshien.