“Shocked” by Death of Former Assembly Member: Hyogo Gov.

Kobe, Jan. 20 (Jiji Press)--Motohiko Saito, governor of Hyogo Prefecture, said Monday that he was “very shocked” by the death of former prefectural assembly member Hideaki Takeuchi, who had grilled Saito at the assembly’s special committee investigating harassment and corruption allegations against the governor.

Takeuchi was found unconscious at his home in the Hyogo city of Himeji on Saturday night and later confirmed dead at a hospital.

He is believed to have killed himself after resigning from the assembly of the western Japan prefecture on Nov. 18, the day after Saito’s reelection, due apparently to waves of online slander and threats against him and his family during the gubernatorial race that were sparked by speeches by political group leader Takashi Tachibana, who ran in the election to help Saito return to the post he lost after the assembly’s passage of a no-confidence motion.

In the wake of Takeuchi’s death, Tachibana said in his YouTube video Sunday that the 50-year-old former assembly member took his own life as he feared being arrested.

At an assembly committee meeting Monday, Hyogo police chief Toshiyuki Murai categorically denied that the prefectural police had voluntarily questioned Takeuchi or had been planning to arrest him.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]