Photo/Illutration Three members of ombudsman organizations hold a news conference at the Hyogo prefectural office in Kobe on Oct. 9 after filing a criminal complaint against former Governor Motohiko Saito. (Kenji Oda)

KOBE—Members of citizen ombudsman organizations filed a criminal complaint against former Hyogo Governor Motohiko Saito and his deputy over funding for parades to celebrate the Japan Series baseball championship last year.

The complaint, submitted to Hyogo prefectural police on Oct. 9, says Saito and former Deputy Governor Yasutaka Katayama inappropriately used taxpayers’ money for the parades, causing 300 million yen ($2 million) in financial damage.

“The former governor lacks an understanding of moral responsibility,” one of the three men who filed the complaint said at a news conference held at the Hyogo prefectural office. “He is not getting away with this without taking criminal responsibility in some way.”

Prefectural police have not yet said if they will act on the complaint or not.

The three men are from citizen ombudsman organizations based in Nishinomiya and Amagasaki in Hyogo Prefecture.

The parades were held on Nov. 23, 2023, to celebrate the two Kansai region teams that reached the Japan Series: the Nishinomiya-based Hanshin Tigers and the Osaka-based Orix Buffaloes.

The Tigers, winners of the Central League pennant, defeated the Pacific League champion Buffaloes in the Japan Series.

The celebration was arranged by a committee consisting of the Osaka and Hyogo prefectural governments, an economic federation and other organizations.

The committee had established a policy of not spending public funds for the celebration, so it raised money through crowdfunding and donations from companies and individuals.

According to the complaint, the funding drive fell short of the target, so Katayama demanded donations from financial institutions in mid-November 2023.

Around the same time, the Hyogo prefectural government increased subsidies for small and mid-sized companies from 100 million yen to 400 million yen.

Several financial institutions that received the larger subsidies then offered donations for the parades.

The criminal complaint says, “The increase in the amount of subsidies is connected with the donations.”

The ombudsmen groups insisted that Saito was behind the decision to increase the subsidies and the order to gain corporate donations for the parades.

Therefore, according to the complaint, he “misused taxpayer money for unnecessary subsidies, which turned into donations for the victory parades.”

A Hyogo prefectural official tasked with organizing the parades died in an apparent suicide in April over the stress caused by the overwhelming work. The prefectural government announced his death in July.

Another prefectural government official, who had distributed a document accusing Saito and his top aides of power harassment and corruption, said the governor had ordered financial institutions to donate the increased subsidy amount for the parades.

The prefectural government suspended the whistleblower, and he died in an apparent suicide in July.

At a news conference in June, Saito denied telling companies to provide funds for the parades.

“I did not give such an order,” he said.

The allegations against Saito, including possible violations of whistleblower-protection laws, led to a unanimous vote of no-confidence against him in the prefectural assembly in September.

Saito was effectively forced to give up the post, but he said he will try to regain it in the Nov. 17 gubernatorial election.

Related News