*Delivered 12/16 (Mon) 18:05 Asahi Shimbun Digital On the 16th, the Kobe District Public Prosecutors Office and the Hyogo Prefectural Police accepted a complaint on charges of violation of the Public Offices Election Act (bribery) regarding the re-election of Hyogo Governor Saito Motohiko, alleging that Governor Saito’s side paid approximately 700,000 yen to a PR company as election campaign compensation. This was learned through interviews with people involved in the investigation. Governor Saito has previously acknowledged the payments but has maintained that they were not payment for election campaign activities. The local prosecutor’s office and the prefectural police will now investigate the circumstances surrounding the payments and make a careful judgment as to whether any illegality was involved. The issue began on November 20th, after the gubernatorial election, when the president of a PR company posted on the posting website “Note” that he had been in charge of “general public relations” for Saito’s camp. The Public Offices Election Act generally prohibits candidates from giving or receiving money from election campaigners for the purpose of helping them win elections, and some have pointed out that this is illegal. Some of the posts have already been deleted or rewritten. Lawyer Gohara Nobuo, a former prosecutor at the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office, and Kobe Gakuin University professor Kamiwaki Hiroyuki, who sent the complaint, claim that based on the content of the initial post and other factors, there is a suspicion that the 715,000 yen paid by Governor Saito’s side to the PR company in November was a fee for the election campaign for “strategic public relations work” commissioned to the company’s president during the gubernatorial election. The indictment also pointed out that the president may have violated the same law (being bribed) by allegedly receiving money as payment for election campaigning. On the other hand, Governor Saito has stated in previous press conferences and elsewhere that the 715,000 yen was payment for five items, including the production of posters, which are expenditures permitted under the Public Offices Election Act, and has claimed that it was not payment for election campaigning. Continue reading below.
>>4 I saw a response to an article recently that said “Don’t do that” even though the application hadn’t been accepted. What if they don’t get charged this time? Next time they’ll just be charged, and then it’ll still be the district court, and then there’s the Supreme Court, so I guess the goalposts will gradually move lol.
The contents of the Orita Note are completely guilty. I hope they settle this quickly. The Ishiba administration will be pleased that attention is now being drawn to the Hyogo fiasco.
Now that something suspicious has come from within the camp, it would be in Saito’s best interest to have it properly investigated. If he gets the stamp of approval that there are no problems, he can carry out his duties with confidence.
Maybe Hyogo Prefecture will hold another gubernatorial election and come to its senses.
The reason Governor Saito has been saving money on the prefecture’s finances was to use the money for this new gubernatorial election, so things will balance out nicely.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications will do everything in its power to prevent the Saito gang’s evil deeds from spreading across the nation.
The judicial system has been extremely lenient with higher-ranking officers lately, so I guess they’ll just let him off the hook and not prosecute him.
Regardless of whether this will lead to prosecution, the things that people in Saito’s camp are saying are so inconsistent that I think they have zero credibility, but do the vegetables really believe Saito?
The least damage to society would be for Kaede to say she did it without any knowledge. If she was involved in the cover-up, she’d be evil, not stupid.
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