Prosecutors Drop Election Fraud Case against Hyogo Gov. Saito

Kobe, Nov. 12 (Jiji Press)–The Kobe District Public Prosecutors Office on Wednesday dropped an election fraud case against Hyogo Governor Motohiko Saito and the head of a public relations firm, citing insufficient evidence. The prosecutors office and the Kobe prefectural police department had received a criminal complaint from a university professor and others over Saito’s payment to the firm. They claimed that the payment, totaling 715,000 yen, was compensation for campaign activities in the western Japan prefecture’s gubernatorial election last November, including planning a PR strategy and managing social media accounts, and thus constituted a vote-buying case under the public offices election law. However, the prosecutors office concluded that it could not recognize the payment as compensation for campaign activities. The prosecutors office also doubted that Saito used the payment to have the firm’s head campaign for him. Saito has explained that the payment was for producing campaign posters and leaflets, which the law permits, and that the firm’s head was involved in managing social media accounts as a volunteer. The prosecutors office also dropped a breach-of-trust case against Saito and former Vice Governor Yasutaka Katayama, in which they were accused of increasing subsidies to financial institutions to collect donations for a victory parade for local professional baseball teams. Additionally, Saito escaped indictment in another breach-of-trust case, in which he allegedly took home wine presented to the prefecture. Saito was first elected Hyogo governor in August 2021, but lost his office in September last year after the prefectural assembly passed a no-confidence motion against him over power harassment allegations. Nevertheless, he was re-elected in the subsequent gubernatorial election. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]