Fukuoka Mayor Soichiro Takashima ordered city employees Monday to abstain from drinking alcohol outside their homes for a month in the wake of several drinking-related scandals involving city officials.
Fukuoka City Hall also said it will rethink disciplinary guidelines with a view to imposing heavier punishment on personnel involved in alcohol-related scandals, the mayor said.
"We sometimes need shock therapy for people to change their way of thinking. I hope each of you takes this abnormal situation seriously because the matter involves everyone," Takashima said at an extraordinary meeting Monday morning.
The notice orders officials to only drink nonalcoholic beverages at meetings with kin and at work-related parties, and only allows alcohol consumption at their own wedding parties.
Recently, a 52-year-old port bureau official was arrested for allegedly beating a taxi driver, and a 48-year-old child care section official was arrested for injuring a former colleague Friday night. Both were apparently drunk.