OSAKA -- Osaka Gov. "Knock" Yokoyama may be taking home a salary of just 150,000 yen for June, one-tenth of his regular monthly pay, after voluntarily accepting his third wage cut since last year to take responsibility for scandals and other problems surrounding his administration.
On Friday, the Osaka Prefectural Government proposed to the local assembly a one-month 30 percent pay cut for the governor as punishment for the collapse of a third-sector company in which the prefecture had invested. The assembly is likely to approve the reduction, which follows earlier cuts implemented because of the prefectural administration's fiscal problems and revelations of government money kept by local officials.
The governor's monthly salary is set by law at around 1.6 million yen before tax and other deductions. In April last year, Yokoyama offered to have his pay reduced indefinitely by 5 percent to contribute to rebuilding the prefecture's finances.
Last month, the governor had his monthly salary cut an additional 30 percent over a scandal involving senior officials of the prefecture and the revelation that local government workers had kept 1.3 billion yen in a slush fund. The 30-percent cut will remain effective until October.
If the latest pay cut is implemented, Yokoyama will see his salary for the month of June cut by nearly 70 percent, and after deductions for residential and other taxes, he will receive about 150,000 yen, according to Osaka Prefecture officials.
Yokoyama himself has said he hopes to run the government in a manner that will not prompt such pay cuts, adding that "I will persevere and hope that someday my salary will return to what it was."