Photo/Illutration Shizuoka Governor Heita Kawakatsu announces his resignation to reporters at the Shizuoka prefectural government building on April 2. (Miho Tanaka)

SHIZUOKA--In a move that could kickstart the delayed magnetic-levitation (maglev) high-speed train project, Shizuoka Governor Heita Kawakatsu said he would resign over his speech that insulted farmers, ranchers and factory workers.

The governor appeared before reporters after 6 p.m. on April 2 and apologized “if my remarks caused discomfort among many people.”

But he defended himself, saying, “Audiences would not misunderstand what I meant in the speech if they read it in its entirety.”

He also accused the media of “picking up only part of my address and reporting on it.”

When asked what he would do to avoid future misunderstandings, Kawakatsu abruptly expressed his intention to resign as governor.

“I am going to quit after the prefectural assembly session starting in June is over, and that’s all,” he said as he left without answering questions from reporters.

Kawakatsu, 75, is serving his fourth term and has a history of making offensive comments.

The latest controversy came when the governor was addressing new prefectural government employees at a welcoming ceremony on April 1.

“The prefectural government is a think tank,” Kawakatsu said in the speech, which was streamed on the prefectural government’s official YouTube channel. “You have brains and are highly intelligent, unlike people who sell vegetables, attend to cattle and manufacture products.”

On April 2, the prefectural government received 430 phone calls and emails about Kawakatsu’s words, almost all of them critical of the governor.

“Does he believe that people in farming and cattle raising have low intellect? He is arrogant,” said one complainant.

“I was under the impression that Shizuoka Prefecture is proud of its residents’ ability to produce,” said another.

His departure, if it happens, could advance the ambitious--and expensive--project of Central Japan Railway Co. (JR. Tokai) to build the Linear Chuo Shinkansen Line linking Tokyo with Nagoya.

The project started in December 2014 , and the maglev line, expected to be one of the fastest in the world, is supposed to run through Shizuoka Prefecture.

However, Kawakatsu has refused to give JR Tokai approval for tunnel construction in the prefecture, citing the potential impact on the environment.

The president of JR Tokai announced on March 29 that the Linear Chuo Shinkansen Line will not begin operating in 2027 as planned, with the delay expected to be at least several years.

The lack of progress in Shizuoka Prefecture was cited as a reason for the postponement.

Asked about Kawakatsu’s intention to resign, a JR Tokai official said, “We are not in a position to comment on the matter.”

Kawakatsu was first elected governor in July 2009 after serving as a professor of economics at Waseda University in Tokyo and president of Shizuoka University of Art and Culture.

As governor, Kawakatsu has sparked controversy with his blunt comments.

In December 2019, he angered a group of prefectural assembly members who opposed the construction of a public facility by saying, “The prefectural assembly has gangs and rogues.”

He later retracted the remark.

In October 2020, after then-Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga refused, without explanation, to endorse the appointment of six candidates for the Science Council of Japan, Kawakatsu described Suga’s decision as “revealing the level of his culture.”

He later withdrew the comment.

The question now is: Who will succeed Kawakatsu and how will the next governor view the maglev project?

Shu Watanabe, a Lower House member of the opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and a former senior vice defense minister, told The Asahi Shimbun on the night of April 2 that Kawakatsu had earlier contacted him about possibly entering the governor’s race.

Watanabe, 62, who is from Shizuoka Prefecture, signaled interest in the job.

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