<figure id="attachment_435127" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-435127" style="width: 1154px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="221cf6de"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/08/ae19caf931d8f60fdd578d408d364697.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-435127" class="wp-caption-text">A Jiji Press reporter who asked a question at the press conference of Hyogo Governor Motohiko Saito (left) was set ablaze. Takashi Tachibana also joined in the fracas and &#8230;&#8230;</figcaption></figure>
<h2> A female Jiji Press reporter tearfully &#8230;&#8230;</h2>
 Protect #Jiji Press reporter!
 The hashtag &#8220;#Protect Jiji Press Reporters&#8221; is spreading widely.
 The hashtag &#8220;#Jiji Press reporter: protect Jiji Press reporter&#8221; has been spreading widely in Hyogo Prefecture, where a flood of complaints were lodged against a reporter who asked a question at the governor&#8217;s press conference.
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 At the Hyogo governor&#8217;s regular press conference held on July 29, a female reporter from Jiji Press burst into tears,
 [Joon] I asked a question here last week, and after that, I was removed from the prefectural government because of the endless phone calls to my company complaining about it. A reporter asked a question at a press conference, and the same day it went up in flames, and the next day I was reassigned. That kind of thing happens in Hyogo Prefecture.
 and confessed that his question to Governor Motohiko Saito (47) caused a flood of complaints to the company and he was transferred. And then..,
 I think Hyogo Prefecture has become a playground for this kind of thing. This will cause the reporters to shrink and the staff and council members to shrink, but will this create the open workplace that Mr. Saito and Governor Saito are pushing for? Will it lead to decent prefectural administration?
 He appealed, &#8220;I wonder if this will lead to a decent prefectural administration.
 At a press conference on July 22, a female reporter from Jiji Press asked the governor if there were any cases in the past of employees who were disciplined for returning salaries of the former director of the Nishi-Harima Prefectural Citizens Bureau, who passed away, deciding to do so themselves, or returning salaries based on the amount indicated by a third party who was not the prefectural government or its employees. He then complained that the fact that the plaintiffs in the residents&#8217; lawsuit had been paid back an ambiguous amount might cause problems in the future.
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 A reporter for a local newspaper reported on the return of the salary of the former director of the Prefectural Citizens Bureau,
 In February and March of this year, residents of Hyogo Prefecture filed a request with the prefectural government to return a portion of the salary to the bereaved family of the former bureau chief, but the prefecture dismissed the request. However, in May, a resident of the prefecture filed a lawsuit with the Kobe District Court demanding that the prefecture return 625,000 yen to the bereaved family, based on his own calculation of the amount equivalent to his salary. This amount is believed to have been calculated based on the reason for the disciplinary action announced by the prefectural government last May, which stated that the employee had &#8220;created private documents on his official computer for a total of approximately 200 hours over a 14-year period while on duty. However, it is not clear how accurate the 200 hours is.
 He explains, &#8220;I am not sure how accurate the 200 hours is.
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" Governor Saito&#39;s Responsibility, as mentioned by the Newspaper Workers&#39; Union"></div>
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<figure id="attachment_435128" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-435128" style="width: 1305px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="1aab261c"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/08/4e413c71524a4ef911693129e69d0be1.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-435128" class="wp-caption-text">The uproar is still not over in Hyogo Prefecture, but how will Governor Saito take the initiative?</figcaption></figure>
 According to the lawyer representing the bereaved family, the family did not want the trial to be prolonged and asked to be left alone, so they requested a voluntary return. The prefectural government announced on July 16 that the case had been returned.
 Now, however, the prefecture has asked the bereaved families to return the property voluntarily.
 &#8220;He has admitted his fault!
 The reporter was harassed by the media. The reporter suggested that the governor should stop the harassment, but the governor said, &#8220;I don&#8217;t know what to do,
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 The governor said, &#8220;There should be no slander on the Internet.
 Well, I am doing what I can do to help.
 He continued to give the same &#8220;stereotyped&#8221; answers as before.
 The same reporter had asked Saito many times before at his press conferences, and had even asked questions that seemed to be directed at the governor. However, nothing like this has ever happened. Reporters from other media outlets have similarly questioned Governor Saito, but we have not heard of any flood of complaints.
<h2> Governor Motohiko Saito was pointed out to be at the &#8220;epicenter.</h2>
 Why in the world did this reporter receive a flood of complaints at this time? A post on a social networking site suggests the reason.
 After the regular press conference, Satoshi Nitta, editor-in-chief of the news site &#8220;SAKISIRU,&#8221; posted the following on X
 [A female reporter from Jiji Press asked this question. She slandered our pursuit and the residents&#8217; sincere movement to pursue the truth as &#8220;harassment by the Internet. This is defamation. I&#8217;m tempted to sue the Jiji Press reporter.
 posted. And Takashi Tachibana, 57, leader of the &#8220;NHK Party,&#8221; did the same with X,
 The remarks of the Jiji Press reporter (editor&#8217;s note: the postings are under his real name) are bad!　At Governor Motohiko Saito&#8217;s press conference today, he harassed the residents of the prefecture who had filed a request for an audit of residents online!　He stated
 and the post seems to incite attacks on the reporter.
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 We asked attorney Kosuke Nishiwaki, who is handling the case on his YouTube channel, about the issue again.
 The reporter simply asked the governor&#8217;s opinion on the ongoing attacks, such as &#8216;admitting fault,&#8217; against the bereaved family of the former Prefectural People&#8217;s Bureau chief, which is a legitimate question. However, on the Internet, the reporter&#8217;s question was twisted to make it sound as if he had said, &#8220;The residents of the prefecture who requested an audit of residents harassed me on the Internet. If Saito&#8217;s supporters believed this and complained to the reporter, such a thing cannot be allowed to happen.
 Tachibana further revealed on his YouTube channel after revealing that the reporter had been reassigned,
 If you had asked a legitimate question, there would not have been a complaint call, and even if there had been a complaint call, Jiji Press would have protected you. Even if they call you with a complaint, Jiji Press will protect you.
 Attorney Nishiwaki said of the posting,
 Personal attacks on reporters lead to atrophy of reporting and news coverage. We have to think about how to prevent such situations, and this time, a major problem has come to light. One of the major issues that has come to light is whether the company has properly protected this reporter. The company has made no formal comment, and when interviewed by the Kobe Shimbun, the reporter gave no explanation as to why he was being reassigned. The company has made no formal comment, and when interviewed by the Kobe Shimbun, the only explanation given was that it was part of the reassignment and that the reason was withheld. If a news organization makes only a personnel change without making an official protest against the slander of a reporter, the attacker will take it as a &#8220;victory. I think the company needs to take a firm stand and make it clear that it will protect its reporters.
 He also said that Jiji Press&#8217;s response was also problematic, and stressed that the situation must not be turned into a &#8220;success&#8221; or anything of the sort.
 On August 5, the Japan Federation of Newspaper Workers&#8217; Unions issued a statement, stating
 On June 5, the Japan Newspaper Publishers Association released a statement stating that it would not tolerate unjustified attacks on journalists, etc., and that it would take strict action against baseless slander and other human rights violations, on the grounds that &#8220;if legitimate news gathering activities are threatened, democracy may be shaken. Jiji Press urges a swift response.
 In January of this year, the Sankei Shimbun issued a firm statement of protest against the repeated slander and defamation of its reporters on social media. Now Jiji Press is being questioned about its stance.
 And in a statement from the Newspaper Workers&#8217; Union,
 Governor Saito has stated in previous press conferences that &#8220;the freedom of the press must be respected,&#8221; but he should present an in-depth view from the perspective of respecting the freedom of the press on what he thinks about the current situation where reporters who ask questions are subjected to slander and libel.)
 He also complained to the governor, &#8220;The press freedom must be respected.
 A reporter from Jiji Press also complained, &#8220;The governor is always at the epicenter.
 The governor is always at the epicenter. I believe that only the governor can change this situation.
 One wonders how long the turmoil in Hyogo Prefecture will continue.

 Hiroyuki Sasaki (entertainment journalist)

 Takeshi Kinugawa (1st), Kei Kato (2nd)

 The confusion in Hyogo Prefecture began with the death of the former director of the Hyogo Prefectural Citizens Bureau. This time, a female reporter from Jiji Press, who questioned Governor Motohiko Saito, was made a target on the Internet and other media, and she tearfully ......

Protect #Jiji Press reporters!&#8221; Even the Newspaper Workers&#8217; Union raised its voice, behind which Takashi Tachibana and others shot back and Jiji Press was ineffectual.

Protect #Jiji Press reporters!” Even the Newspaper Workers’ Union raised its voice, behind which Takashi Tachibana and others shot back and Jiji Press was ineffectual.

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