Isolated Governor Steps Down

The Governor of Tokyo, Naoki Inose, submitted a letter for his resignation to the Chairman of Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly on Thursday. After consecutive question from the assembly members on his reception of ¥50 million from a hospital group, Tokushukai, Inose realized that he could not escape from his guilty. That will never be a final solution of the money scandal. Looking into how he decided it, one can find complicated connections between politics and the money scandal.

In June 2012 when he was a vice-governor, he required Tokyo Electric Power Company to sell its own hospital at the annual stockholders meeting. The Metropolitan Government of Tokyo is one of the biggest stockholders of TEPCO. TEPCO decided to sell it on October. Tokushukai joined the auction of buying the hospital this summer, but failed. Those are the facts.

The explanation of Inose made no sense in many ways. He said that he had not talked about the hospital, when he received the money from Tokushukai last November. However, there appeared to have been a conversation about the hospital, as confession of arrested families of Tokushukai was revealed. It is guilty in Japan for a government person to receive money from someone who has an interest on something to what he/she has authority.

The main reason why Inose turned his attitude to stepping down was an advice from former Governor, Shintaro Ishihara. Inose met Ishihara on Tuesday to consult about his future. Ishihara recommended resignation, because Inose seemed to be impossible to make credible explanation on receiving money. But, Ishihara was the Governor when Inose required TEPCO to sell the hospital. Didn’t Ishihara have responsibility to oversee what his vice-governor was doing?

Ishihara had visited the office of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe hours before Inose made his mind up on Wednesday. Ishihara and Abe agreed with the notion that Inose needed to step down. Abe showed his wish for quick solution not making the scandal affect to preparation for Tokyo Olympic Games in 2020. Looking at harsh investigation of assembly members of Liberal Democratic Party, which once supported Inose at gubernatorial election last year, Abe cannot be said to have nothing to do with paving the way for Inose’s resignation.

After all, Inose was nothing affective for everyone in current authoritative powers. TEPCO must have been frustrated with oppressive governor who required selling its property. His scandal was inconvenient for Ishihara, who has been doubted about his own relationship with Tokushukai. Abe wanted to save the Olympic, to which he devoted great energy. No one wanted to help Inose.