Japan Press Weekly

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2012 June 6 - 12 [CIVIL RIGHTS]

Osakans urge mayor to return money used for political beliefs survey

Osaka residents on June 5 demanded that Osaka Mayor Hashimoto Toru pay back 95 million yen which they argue was wasted on conducting a survey of municipal workers’ political beliefs.

The formal request was made by 229 members of the Osaka citizens network.

Mayor Hashimoto conducted a mandatory survey on municipal workers’ involvement in political and union activities, infringing on their constitutional freedom of thought and conscience.

The survey came under heavy attack from many legal and labor organizations throughout Japan. The Osaka Labor Relations Commission recognized the survey as an unjust attempt to control labor unions and demanded its suspension. Met with the backlash, Osaka City Special Advisor Nomura Shuya, who was in charge of the survey, destroyed workers’ written responses before checking them.

Based on municipal documents, the residents estimated that personnel costs for 32,000 municipal workers to spend an hour on average to answer the survey would amount to 86.84 million yen in addition to the 8.54 million yen in wages paid to Nomura and his 12 assistants.