An investigation revealed that Tatsuji Sugimoto, a former governor in Japan, allegedly sent over 1,000 inappropriate text messages to staff. He resigned last month from his second term as governor of Fukui prefecture following sexual harassment allegations.

• The report identified 1,000+ text messages corroborating sexual harassment, including sexually explicit content.
• The investigation also found several cases of alleged physical contact, which Sugimoto denied.
• The report concluded that Sugimoto bears "grave responsibility" for his actions, highlighting Japan's low ranking in the World Economic Forum’s gender gap index (118th out of 148 nations in 2025).