At the Hyogo Prefectural Assembly Special Investigative Committee (Hyakujo Committee) on the 5th, regarding the issue of the documented allegations against Governor Saito Motohiko and others, Goji Harada, director of the Prefectural Industrial and Labor Department, testified about the circumstances surrounding his receipt of a high-end coffee maker from a company in the prefecture. When Saito visited the company, he said, “I like coffee too.” The company offered to give him a coffee maker, but since there were many reporters in attendance, he said, “It wouldn’t be appropriate for me to accept it, so I declined.”

Harada is one of the governor’s close aides whose name appears in the document. According to testimony and other sources, he visited a local company that manufactures home appliances and cooking utensils together with Saito in August last year.

At the time, in an area where high-end coffee makers and other products were on display, Mr. Saito said to the person in charge, “I like coffee too.” The person in charge then suggested, “Please use it,” but Mr. Saito immediately declined.

Harada testified, “There were a lot of people (including reporters) there, so we decided it wouldn’t be appropriate to accept it as an individual, and I declined.”

Harada was then approached by a company representative who said it would be good PR for the company, so he had the product shipped to him and stored it at the prefectural office. He said he returned the package, unopened, to the company in April of this year after the allegations were circulated.

The lawyer who cooperated with Hyogo Prefecture’s investigation was an adviser to the association mentioned in the allegations, “I told the prefecture.”