Photo/Illutration Yamanashi Governor Kotaro Nagasaki holds a news conference in Kofu on Feb. 8. (Masahiro Haba)

A prefectural governor has taken an action that can only be interpreted as a simple attempt to dodge unwanted questions with lame excuses.

If such an action becomes accepted, the transparency and accountability of politics and administration could be further undermined. All politicians should be aware of their significant responsibility to answer relevant questions.

Last month in Yamanashi Prefecture, when Governor Kotaro Nagasaki was interviewed on the occasion of entering his sixth year in office, multiple media outlets were asked by the prefectural government’s public relations official to refrain from asking questions about political funds.

Since the interview was intended as an opportunity for the governor to talk about prefectural policies, he wanted questions not related to "prefectural governance" to be asked at regular news conferences, according to the local government.

This is an utterly self-serving action.

Nagasaki belongs to the Liberal Democratic Party’s faction headed by Toshihiro Nikai, a former LDP secretary-general.

Since his time as a member of the Lower House, he has been found to have failed to declare in the political funding report more than 10 million yen ($66,450) of income his fund management organization had received from the faction.

At his regular news conferences, reporters ask many questions about this matter, but the governor often did not offer straightforward answers, saying, "Ask the Nikai faction" or "I will refrain from answering."

This is a significant issue that is rocking the national political scene. Reporters have every reason to keep asking questions about his involvement in the political funding scandal when they have the chance to interview the local government chief.

Nagasaki is grossly mistaken to think that questions about slush funds built up by LDP factions are unrelated to prefectural governance.

Voters in the central Japanese prefecture have the right to know Nagasaki’s views and thoughts about the scandal by observing how the governor, the public official in charge of prefectural administration, explains the allegations against him so that they can decide whether he should be allowed to continue leading the local government.

The prefectural administration insists that the request was not an attempt to restrict journalistic activities.

But this claim does not hold water given that some media outlets were not allowed to interview Nagasaki after they rejected the request.

It is outrageous for a local government employee to try to suppress specific questions, but the problem of the governor is bigger as he is turning his back on voters and trying to evade accountability.

In the city of Tokushima last month, a municipal government official requested local newspapers not to ask questions about the mayoral election at the mayor's regular news conference, and the mayor was later forced to apologize.

It is also fresh in our memory that Hiroshi Hase, the governor of Ishikawa Prefecture, who raised doubts about a documentary film produced by a local TV station, canceled his regular news conference.

If a growing number of local government chiefs and other political leaders are starting to think that they or the government can restrict people's right to know at will, it is a deeply troubling development.

We live in an era when politicians and administrations communicate with the public through social media and other platforms.

The importance of journalism is growing, including in the arena of national politics, because it involves asking people in power questions about their thoughts and reasons behind them through face-to-face communication.

We at The Asahi Shimbun also reaffirm our commitment to refuse to yield to unreasonable demands.

--The Asahi Shimbun, March 5

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