Corruption in Wakayama-shi

Last week, the governor of Wakayama Prefecture resigned from the Prefectural Office on corruption charges. He is tied to construction illicit businesses. Yesterday morning, the third person in the hierarchy of this construction company who was in charge of money collection, a 71-year-old man committed suicide in the Nankai railway, just where the students cross it when taking the shortcut on their way to university. This is a scandal, and Wakayama people is alarmed and angry at the time. However, they still talk about it like a secret. I was approached about the issue today by a tutor lady who started the conversation as if it were a secret, but later raised her voice to a more normal level. This is not a secret and everybody knows about the issue. People is very concerned.

The reason why this high rank employee committed suicide is because he was about to being interrogated by the police. This kind of crimes are very bad seen within Japanese society. Actually, any crime is regarded badly. I once heard of somebody who lost his job because he got a ticket for over speeding in a highway. The moral weight of breaking the law is far too much and difficult to put up with. By the way, highways here may well allow somebody to drive at 120km/h, but the speed limit is 80km/h. Talking about speed limits, this is what happened to a friend of mine.

Back to the corruption scandal in this small city and the suicide of this old man, the former governor's house is now being guarded by the police (he is likely to be under house arrest), until he is brought to justice, or at least interrogated. Prefectural elections will be held on December 17th. Election time is very quite in Japan. Foreignhers hardly know is a different day.