Investigation Eyes Saito’s Social Media Campaign; Was PR Company Illegally Paid for Work?

By Taiga Oka and Yuko Ueda / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writers

16:23 JST, February 8, 2025

KOBE — An investigation has been launched after members of the public filed an accusation that publicity agency merchu inc. received illegal payments for its election campaign work on behalf of Hyogo Gov. Motohiko Saito, with the Kobe District Public Prosecutors Office and the Hyogo prefectural police searching related locations including the agency itself and the residence of the agency’s representative on Friday.

The investigators will examine the seized items to clarify the relations between the operation of certain social media accounts and payments in connection with the Hyogo gubernatorial election in November, in which Saito was reelected.

“As the supervisor, I took responsibility for planning the campaign strategy and content.” The issue started with this online post by the representative of merchu inc. The post discussed the operation of social media for Saito’s campaign.

The Public Offices Election Law prohibits candidates from giving money to campaign workers with the aim of getting elected, and it also prohibits campaign workers from accepting money.

In the case of election campaigning using the internet, if a business operator engages in campaign planning at their own initiative and receives or is promised payment in return, the operator may be held criminally responsible.

After the issue arose, a lawyer and a university professor filed an accusation saying the representative of merchu planned overall public relations activities of the Saito camp for the gubernatorial election and that the representative carried it out, and that ¥715,000 paid by Saito’s side in November last year was payment for overall online public relations activities.

Were activities ‘campaigning’?

In response, the Saito camp has offered the explanation that his team took the initiative in operating its own social media sites and that the merchu representative worked as a campaign volunteer who was involved in setting up the Saito camp’s social media accounts and filming videos of election speeches. The camp also said ¥715,000 paid to merchu was compensation for producing campaign posters and other items within the scope allowed by the election law and therefore it does not constitute bribery.

The first point that needs to be clarified is whether the representative was proactively involved in the election campaign using social media services. A senior investigator said, “It is natural to view [the representative’s activities] as election campaign activities [covered by the election law].”

The next point that needs to be examined is whether the ¥715,000 paid to merchu constitutes a reward for election campaigning. Some election planners say that it was a reasonable amount of money for matters such as the production of posters. The senior investigator said, “It is a small amount of money as reward, and we can’t say that Saito’s explanation is lacking in rationality.”

One senior prosecutor said, “The search was conducted as part of a thorough investigation.” If the investigation is not thorough enough and no indictment is filed, a meeting of a Committee for the Inquest of Prosecution will be convened to review the prosecutors’ decision, which could be viewed as problematic.

In the investigation, the focus will also be on whether there were other promises or exchanges of money. Another senior investigator said, “We will need to see whether the search produces evidence that shows that the money was a reward for election campaigning.”