PC Leak Controversy – Prof. Okuyama on Gov. Saito’s Motive to Discredit Whistleblower

“It’s exactly as I said.”

Was he driven into a corner and desecrated the deceased once again?

On March 5, the Hyogo Prefectural Assembly’s Special Committee under Article 100 concluded that there were major issues with the prefectural government’s response regarding the whistleblower complaint against Governor Motohiko Saito (47).

However, Governor Saito insisted,

“There were no issues with the prefecture’s response.”

Furthermore, he made his first statement about the contents of the former prefectural bureau chief’s private documents stored on an official government computer, saying,

“He had created highly unethical and obscene documents.”

This remark, directed at the former bureau chief who passed away last July after filing the complaint, has caused widespread controversy.

While concerns had been raised from the beginning, the committee’s investigation report stated,
“There is a high possibility that this constitutes an external public interest whistleblowing case, and the illegality may still be ongoing.”

Amid these developments, a video warning about the situation by an expert has resurfaced on social media, drawing renewed attention with comments such as:
“It’s exactly as I said.”

The video comes from Professor Toshihiro Okuyama of Sophia University, an expert on the public interest whistleblowing system, who was invited as a witness to the special committee last September to provide his opinion.

According to Professor Okuyama,

“Whistleblowers are almost always subjected to a mix of exaggerated and baseless personal attacks.”

He analyzed that those accused tend to attack the whistleblower rather than refuting the content of the whistleblowing itself. This is a common pattern seen worldwide. He further explained:

“Why does this happen? One reason is that the accused feel exposed and react emotionally with anger, thinking, ‘How dare they reveal this?’ Another reason is an intentional effort to damage the whistleblower’s reputation and credibility, thereby undermining the legitimacy of the allegations. However, personal attacks are not just about discrediting an individual. The ultimate aim of character attacks and accusations of leaks is to prevent a chain reaction of whistleblowing.”

In short, the typical response of the accused is to criticize the whistleblower’s character and daily behavior, shifting the focus by instilling in public opinion the idea that: