Third Victim of Governor’s Scandal

News media reported that former member of Hyogo Prefectural Assembly, Hideaki Takeuchi, was found dead at his home on January 18th. The local police recognize it as a suicide. Takeuchi was one of the members of investigation committee for measures against whistleblowing in Hyogo Prefectural Government by Governor Motohiko Saito. Takeuchi has been suffering from defamation in the social networking service (SNS) mainly from supporters of Saito. 

Saito was accused of his measures against former officer of Hyogo government who revealed Saito’s harassment on his staffs. The officer was found dead in July 2024. He left a message to his family that he would protest the governor by the death of himself, convincing the police that it had been a suicide. Later in the same month, another staff related to the scandal of Saito appeared to have died in April 2024. Takeuchi is designated as the third victim of the scandal of Saito.

 

Hyogo Prefectural Assembly launched an investigation committee, called “article 100 committee” named after provision of Local Autonomy Law, to scrutinize whether Saito had been involved in identifying the whistleblower on governor’s scandal. Takeuchi was one of the members of the committee.

 

After Saito was reelected in the gubernatorial election in November, Takeuchi stepped down as member of the assembly, leaving message that it was a decision about a matter of him. During the election campaign, there were a lot of posting in SNS accusing Takeuchi. “Because violence of words and violence in internet spread, my families are suffering from mental pressure” explained Takeuchi about his resignation to one of his colleagues.

 

After the death of Takeuchi, the head of Party to Protect the People from NHK, Takashi Tachibana, posted on his account in X that Takeuchi had been interviewed by the police and supposed to be arrested by the police just before his death. Hyogo Prefectural Police unusually held a press conference and denied the fact which Tachibana had posted. “We have not interviewed Takeuchi as a suspect and had no idea of arresting him,” said Noriyuki Murai, the head of Hyogo Prefectural Police Office.

 

Tachibana ran for the gubernatorial election in November. He launched an unusual campaign not seeking his winning but for urging the voters to vote for Saito. There is an accusation against Saito of violation of Public Offices Election Act, in which Saito was involved in illegal payment for a firm of public relations.

 

On the death of Takeuchi, Saito told the reporters that defamation is what should not be done in SNS, urging the people to correctly use it. Tachibana deleted his comments on Takeuchi from his account and apologized to the police about his wrong posting. However, he refused to apologize to Takeuchi. The police reiterated that they would appropriately deal with defamation in the SNS.

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