Hyogo “It’s not enough. “Make it 400 million,” the crying Vice Governor said, increasing the 100 million support budget, and Governor Saito said, “A nice round number is good,” during the victory celebration parade...
“It’s not enough. “Make it 400 million,” the crying Vice Governor said, increasing the support budget from 100 million yen, but Governor Saito said, “It’s better to start the supplementary budget with a nice round number,” providing no justification for the budget increase. What was going on behind the scenes of the Hanshin-Orix victory celebration parade?
※8/10 (Sat) 9:02
Shueisha Online
Last November, Hyogo Prefecture was busy raising funds for the victory celebration parade for the professional baseball team Hanshin-Orix. Meanwhile, the subsidy budget for several credit unions that had been asked by the prefecture to donate sponsorship funds for the parade was suddenly increased from 100 million yen to 400 million yen. A memo written by a prefectural employee recording orders for an increase from Governor Saito Motohiko and then Vice Governor Katayama Yasutaka described the reality of extremely lax public spending, the polar opposite of the popular catchphrase “painful reforms.” “He admitted to creating false documents” is a fabrication by Hyogo Prefecture On March 12, Mr. A (60), then head of the Nishi-Harima Prefectural Affairs Bureau, mailed an accusatory document detailing the alleged illegal activities of the governor and his close associates to 10 people, including members of the media, prefectural assembly members, and prefectural police officials. Among the seven allegations raised is that Vice Governor Katayama (who resigned at the end of July this year) was the mastermind behind increasing prefectural subsidies to credit unions, kicking them back as sponsorship money, and using it to cover the costs of a victory celebration parade. The document also said, “The section chief in charge of the parade was unable to cope mentally with this series of misconduct and the difficult coordination with Osaka Prefecture, developed depression, and is currently undergoing medical treatment.” In April, after the document was released, Mr. B (53), the section chief in charge of the parade, committed suicide. “The indictment also pointed out that Governor Saito had repeatedly engaged in power harassment and extortion. In fact, although the governor did not admit to any “criminal intent,” it was revealed that the power harassment had been repeated against prefectural employees. It was also discovered that the Director of the Department of Industry and Labor, a close aide to the Governor, received a coffee maker from a company. This is suspected to be bribery. “(Freelance journalist)” (The contents of the whistleblower document are gradually becoming clear as fact.) There is a strong view that from the moment A sent the whistleblower document, the prefecture was in a position where it could not cause any disadvantage to A under the Whistleblower Protection Act. However, Governor Saito explained that when he heard about the contents of the document from an acquaintance on March 20, he was the one who was the subject of the allegations, and yet he instructed Vice Governor Katayama and others the following day to “investigate and respond” to the document, stating that “there are many statements that are not factual.” When Vice Governor Katayama confiscated Mr. A’s official laptop and confirmed that it contained the accusatory documents, Governor Saito criticized Mr. A at a press conference on March 27, calling him a “complete liar” and “unfit to be a public servant.” Governor Saito and others did not allow Mr. A to retire at the end of March as he had hoped, and on May 7th imposed a disciplinary punishment of a three-month suspension on him. The attacks on Mr. A did not end there. Continue reading below.
I guess lawmakers and bureaucrats are stealing tax money like this all over Japan. I wish they’d calculate it down to the last penny and guillotine them if they were stealing, but they know that’s impossible and are comfortable stealing anyway. This country is a complete dead end.
The 400 million yen comes from a national subsidy. Local government financial support should be stopped. The drying up should be resolved by merging or annexing the area and restructuring.
If they actually used up the 400 million, then 100 million wasn’t enough, so that means their estimate was correct, right? I don’t see any particular problem with that though.
> The attacks on Mr. A did not end there. “Even after the punishment, the prefectural general affairs director showed the private data on A’s computer to prefectural assembly members. In the prefectural assembly, Osaka Prefectural Assembly members Kishiguchi Minoru and Masuyama Makoto, both members of the Osaka Restoration Party who supported Governor Saito in the gubernatorial election three years ago, continued to demand that all the data be made public. Later, on July 7th, Mr. A was found dead. It is believed to be a suicide.” The Restoration Party is amazing.
>The prefecture increased subsidies to the Shinkin Bank, kicked them back as sponsorship money, and used the money to pay for the victory celebration parade. It’s like embezzling public funds in a roundabout way to pay for the Hanshin parade. No wonder people died.
>>49 When I gave away the dust masks that were left over from the earthquake construction work far away for medical use to China, I got back 5 tons of medical alcohol, which was in short supply at every hospital at the time.
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