Governor with Scandal Reelected

Former Governor of Hyogo Prefecture, Motohiko Saito, won a gubernatorial election of Hyogo voted on November 17. Although he lost his position after the local assembly of Hyogo Prefecture passed a non-confidence resolution in September, Saito ran for the election to fulfill the seat of the governor. It is reported that Saito’s campaign strategy of taking advantage of social networking services (SNS) contributed to his unexpected victory by generating unusual voters’ turnout. 

Saito was accused of his abuse against his staffs while he had been in his works as a governor. The Hyogo prefectural government punished a staff who revealed Saito’s abuses and inappropriate behaviors, arguing that the accusation was not true in core facts. The staff found dead in July. All the parties required resignation of Saito. After Hyogo Prefectural Assembly passed non-confidence resolution, Saito chose a course to give his position up, rather than dissolving the assembly.

 

The election became a one-on-one match between Saito and former Mayor of Amagasaki city, Kazumi Inamura, who received supports from assembly members of the Liberal Democratic Party, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, the Democratic Party for the People and Komeito. Twenty-two mayors out of all twenty-nine in Hyogo prefecture announced their support for Inamura, hoping to stop confusion of administration of Hyogo.

 

The race was led by Inamura at the beginning of campaign, as polls of news organizations indicated. However, as campaign reached the voting day, the supporters for Saito increased in the scene of SNS, the movement which was not appeared in the polls before the election. Saito asked the voters whether the decision of local assembly, which accused Saito’s harassments on his staffs, was right of not. He also appealed his achievements in policies during his term for three years.

 

As a consequence of the stealth campaign, turnout of voters marked 55.65 percent, rising by 14.55 percentage points up. It is likely that independent voters who usually would not go to vote for elections went out to polling stations, encouraged by information in SNS which indicated that Saito had not been doing wrong doings.

 

Strange enough in the election campaign, a candidate who had been criticizing major media such as Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) supported Saito, not himself or his party, insisting that the scandal against Saito was conspiracy made by major media.

 

Saito’s winning can be paralleled with Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential campaign in the United States. Voters for Trump did not care much about what Trump had done when he was the president or in January 6th of 2021. Trump voters cared how he talk to the people or how he dealt with established power in Washington, D.C. Election is no longer a contest for policies, but technical maneuvers for mobilizing people to their alleged causes.

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