Police Raid Toyama City Hall Over Inflated Census Data

Regional police raided city hall in Toyama, Japan, on Saturday following allegations that city officials inflated census data by adding approximately 3,000 nonexistent residents. The Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications initiated the action after discovering inconsistencies during a final review of census records, noting a discrepancy between a May population estimate and the final record published last week.

Hirohisa Fujii, the Mayor of Toyama, apologized for the falsification and pledged full cooperation with the investigation. The inflation of numbers is believed to have been an attempt to avoid the public shame of demographic decline and to prevent budget cuts. Because central government subsidies are allotted based on population size, the city faced a potential loss of $380,000 due to the actual population decrease and a decline in the number of schoolchildren.