(Update) Hyogo Governor Slapped with Criminal Complaint over Info Leak

   Kobe, June 10 (Jiji Press)--A criminal complaint was filed Tuesday against Hyogo Governor Motohiko Saito and two others over the leak of private information of a whistleblower in the western Japan prefecture.
   Kobe Gakuin University professor Hiroshi Kamiwaki filed the complaint with the Kobe District Public Prosecutors Office, alleging violations of the confidentiality duty under the local public service law. The complaint also targeted former Vice Governor Yasutaka Katayama and Chiaki Inomoto, former head of the prefecture's general affairs department.
   According to the complaint, Inomoto showed three prefectural assembly members in April 2024 a printed copy of the private information, which had been stored on a computer for official use. The information was of a former senior prefectural government official who wrote and distributed a document alleging harassment by Saito, and who died in an apparent suicide July that year.
   Saito instructed Inomoto to inform the assembly members of the private information, while Katayama approved the leak after hearing from Inomoto about Saito's order, according to the complaint.
   "It is an organized crime carried out at the behest of the governor and the vice governor," Kamiwaki told a press conference. "I hope investigative authorities will reveal the truth for strict penalties against them."

(2025/06/10-12:01)

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