Hyogo Gov. Motohiko Saito to take 50% pay cut over info leak
The Hyogo prefectural government said Tuesday that it plans to cut Gov. Motohiko Saito's monthly salary by half over three months from July, after the personal information of a whistleblower held by the prefecture was leaked.
The 50% cut includes a 30% reduction that the governor pledged in his reelection campaign.
The Hyogo government will submit an ordinance on the additional cut to the prefectural assembly soon.
Saito told reporters that he will punish himself over the poor information management.
"As the head of the organization, I feel responsible for not being able to properly manage information held by the prefecture," he said.
The personal information was that of a former prefectural government employee who wrote and distributed a document alleging harassment by Saito in March 2024 and who died four months later.
During its investigation of the document, the prefecture found the personal information of the former official in question stored in his government-issued computer. This information was later leaked online.
In a report on the matter released in May, a third-party committee said the leaked information is the same as that discovered by the Hyogo government in the computer.
In a separate report released in the same month, another third-party committee said that Chiaki Inomoto, the former head of the prefecture's general affairs department, had leaked the personal information to prefectural assembly members. It concluded that this was likely to have been carried out under Saito's instructions.
The prefectural government also plans to widen the pay cut for Vice Gov. Yohei Hattori from 15% to 25% for three months from July over his role in the leak.
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