Photo/Illutration Hyogo Governor Motohiko Saito speaks at a March 26 news conference. (Itsuki Soeda)

KOBE--In response to a damning report about his behavior, Hyogo Governor Motohiko Saito admitted to committing power harassment but repeated that he did nothing wrong toward a whistleblower in the prefectural government.

Saito held a news conference on March 26 to respond to a prefectural third-party investigation committee report that concluded 10 cases of power harassment occurred and that the whistleblower protection law was violated.

After saying he would accept the results of the report, Saito said: “I must seriously accept it. I would like to again apologize to prefectural government employees who may have felt uncomfortable or who had to bear a burden.”

But he repeated his past claim that he did nothing wrong in his handling of a whistleblower who had anonymously sent a document to media outlets in March 2024, accusing the governor and other officials of harassment and corruption.

“There is a variety of views even among experts,” Saito said. “Our response was appropriate.”

The panel’s report said the distribution of the document constituted “external whistleblowing under the whistleblower protection law.”

The report said efforts by Saito and his associates to identify the sender of the document constituted a violation of the whistleblower law.

The report also said the prefectural government’s disciplinary action against the whistleblower, who headed the prefectural government’s branch office in charge of the Nishi-Harima region, was “clearly illegal.”

The branch office chief was found dead in an apparent suicide in July last year.

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