TOKYO -- Although ousted from office by a unanimous vote of no confidence in the prefectural assembly, Hyogo Gov. Motohiko Saito was recently reelected to his position. What was behind the social media-heavy "movement" for his return to power?

The Mainichi Shimbun spoke with a psychologist to learn about the "indignation" and other factors that played a role in the governor's reversal of fortune.

The candidate that didn't aim to win

During the election, the social platform X (formerly Twitter) was full of posts under hashtags related to the ex-governor, including, "I got you wrong, (Gov.) Saito," "There are mixed opinions, and information is conflicting, but after considering everything, I chose him," and "In the end, justice wins!" along with photos of things such as people listening to him speak at outdoor rallies.

In March, when allegations of power harassment against him came to the fore, Saito had around 30,000 followers on the platform. By September, however, when he was removed from his post and put himself up for reelection, this had more than doubled to some 70,000. By polling day, the count had gone up to around 180,000.

At the outset of the campaign, it appeared that former mayor of the prefectural city of Amagasaki Kazumi Inamura, 52, was favored to win.

Takashi Tachibana of the NHK Party also ran but, in an exceptional turn of events, the 57-year-old's campaign was apparently set up to aid Saito, with Tachibana saying, "I want the truth about the (harassment whistleblowing) issue to be known. I want to campaign for a positive outcome for Gov. Saito."

Anger for the sake of justice

"They put out information claiming they were telling the truth and the other side's claims were lies, and the mutual moralizing created anger and led to a social movement," commented Hyogo-born clinical psychologist and Tokoha University associate professor Taro Akada.

According to Akada's analysis, those who opposed Saito held him responsible for the death of a prefectural government official who died in an apparent suicide after going public with harassment allegations against the governor.

On the other side were Saito's supporters who said simply that the charges against him were trumped up, while spreading personal information about the deceased public employee.

Anger for the sake of justice is also called indignation. Akada's research has demonstrated that this feeling is easier than others to propagate online, and he believes this played a big role in restoring Saito to power.

Additionally, Akada said that there was a discrepancy in reports on media such as TV and newspapers before and after the announcement of the gubernatorial race. Compared to up to the time he was booted out as governor in September, news about Saito largely tailed off after the election was called on Oct. 31, partly to ensure fair coverage of all the candidates.

This had the effect of spurring sentiments such as, "Only trust information from social media," and, "They're covering up inconvenient facts."

Once someone starts to believe in something, they tend to concentrate on information that confirms the correctness of their beliefs and ignore anything else, a phenomenon known as "confirmation bias." Akada pointed out that, "Even if it's murky information from unclear sources, you may end up agreeing with it."

During the campaign, comment sections on articles and social media posts critical of Saito were met with reciprocal criticism. Tussles between supporters were also occurring on the campaign trail, which Akada believes is a sign of swelling contrarian inclinations.

Three elements led to support

In Akada's view, there were three elements in play behind those who supported Gov. Saito since before he lost his position over the scandal.

The first was the claim that by July, nearing the three-year mark since he assumed his post, Gov. Saito achieved or started acting on 98.8% of his campaign promises, such as a reduction in his own salary and changing the prefecture's fleet of cars.

While not a perfect score, this number made the rounds on social media as proof of his apparent achievements. Information such as this led to the opinion that Saito did well as governor, and Akada believes this is one reason some started to see the accusations against him as made-up.

The second reason was how the news outlets extensively covered Saito being denounced by the special committee set up by the prefectural assembly to review the harassment accusations. Some viewed this as group bullying, leading to sympathy for him.

But, the largest factor according to Akada was what some saw as Saito's "consistency."

While the special committee was still reviewing the facts, the prefectural assembly had urged Saito to step down. The governor consistently upheld his innocence, repeatedly bowing to plead amid the chaos, stating he wanted to "move the prefectural government forward."

"Depending on one's view, Gov. Saito made sense. When someone makes sense, people are more likely to believe their story," said Akada.

Along with this was the "underdog effect" whereby people are emotionally affected by and want to support a person perceived to be trying their best against the odds.

Rights on either side were 'not protected'

Akada, who has practical experiences on harassment responses, worries about people mixing up the power harassment allegations against Gov. Saito and his purported achievements. There are cases of high achievers at work harassing others, but once the thought process starts that achievements should cancel out harassment, others could be victimized.

"Frequently, the harassment (allegations are) drowned out by the person's track record," said Akada.

When it comes to looking into harassment allegations, even if the complaint is suspected of containing falsehoods, third parties ought to objectively bring to light the facts from both sides. This was not done in Hyogo, where Gov. Saito and others involved did their own research, declared the accusations as "defamatory" and sought out the accuser. The special committee, in return, pursued Saito in an emotionally charged way.

"The human rights of neither the complainant nor the accused was protected," Akada pointed out.

To get at the truth

While social media has the power to change society, it can also make it more difficult to make level-headed judgements or ascertain the truth.

Akada said, "The way people grasp the facts can become distorted unconsciously. The first thing to do is humbly listen to the other person, without denying them. Rather than pursuing who is right or wrong, maintain awareness of an equal relationship that allows mutual discussion. It is also important to empathize with the other person's feelings and make your own choices with a flexible mindset."

(Japanese original by Tomofumi Inagaki, Digital News Group)