Photo/Illutration Motohiko Saito in Kobe after he was projected to win the Hyogo gubernatorial election on Nov. 17 (Takuya Tanabe)

KOBE—Motohiko Saito emerged from scandal and won re-election as Hyogo governor in a poll called after he was forced to vacate the office amid bullying and corruption allegations.

“I feel very sorry to have caused concerns about the prefectural administration by the document (about a whistleblower’s accusations),” Saito said Nov. 17 after he was projected to win. “I received voters’ expectations to move the prefectural administration forward.”

Saito, 47, defeated Kazumi Inamura, former mayor of Amagasaki in Hyogo Prefecture, who criticized his handling of the scandal, and five other candidates.

He gained 1,113,911 votes, up by more than 250,000 from 2021, when he was first elected governor. Inamura received about 976,637 votes.

Voter turnout was 55.65 percent, up from 41.10 percent in 2021.

Saito was forced out of the governor’s post in September after the prefectural assembly unanimously voted for a no-confidence motion against him over workplace bullying and other allegations.

During the campaign, Saito justified the way he handled the scandal.

“I want you voters to judge whether the prefectural assembly took the right response,” he said.

Saito received no official backing from a political party, but about 500 people volunteered to support him, according to his campaign.

On the trail to regain the post, Saito emphasized his three-year performance during the first term and widened his support base by posting videos of his street speeches and campaign schedules on social media.

“In the real world, things were tough, but in the social media space, the network of supporters expanded, including people I had never met,” Saito said.

He attracted votes particularly in urban areas, such as the cities of Kobe, Himeji and Nishinomiya.

Inamura, 52, was supported by lawmakers from the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, the Democratic Party for the People and Komeito, as well as by some prefectural assembly members of the Liberal Democratic Party.

Twenty-two of the 29 mayors in the prefecture also came out in her support.

The only other governor in the postwar period to regain the post following passage of a no-confidence motion was Nagano Governor Yasuo Tanaka in 2002.

On the night of Nov. 17, Saito said he will “humbly and carefully” work with the prefectural assembly, saying they share a desire to make the prefecture better.

He also said he will “humbly” work with prefectural government bureaucrats while “carefully” communicating with them.

The scandal broke in March when a senior prefectural government official accused Saito and his aides of bullying subordinates and receiving goods from businesses.

The official, who distributed a document outlining his accusations to prefectural assembly members and media organizations, was found dead in July in an apparent suicide.

He had reported the case under the prefectural government’s whistleblowing system in April.

But the prefectural government did not protect the official as a whistleblower and suspended him for three months based on its in-house investigation in May.

The prefectural assembly in June established a powerful special investigation committee based on the Local Autonomy Law to look into the scandal.

The next committee meeting is scheduled for Nov. 18. Saito is expected to later appear before the panel as a sworn witness.

The committee planned to compile a report by the end of the year, but the work may be postponed due to the gubernatorial election.

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