Isao Kurauchi, the former speaker of the Fukuoka Prefectural Assembly who resigned in August while under scrutiny over alleged cash payments, held his first news conference since stepping down at a hotel in Fukuoka on Thursday. He told reporters that the high cost of the One Health program he championed was being misrepresented, and that criticism of it amounted to a smear.
"I don't think it is being conveyed correctly to residents. It is regrettable that the name One Health has suffered reputational damage," Kurauchi, 72, said of the program, which treats human and animal health as a single field. He has been described as the assembly's "don" — its behind-the-scenes power broker.
Kurauchi promoted One Health alongside Governor Seitaro Hattori. Questions have been raised about the cost of a One Health Center under construction in Miyama, Fukuoka Prefecture, at about 22.1 billion yen, and about monuments costing about 300 million yen in total at the prefecture-run Chikugo Wide-Area Park.
Origin of the center's name
Kurauchi said the Miyama project began as a land-use discussion and that he advised on rebuilding a health and medical research institute. The One Health name was attached afterward, he said.
“People say that if you say One Health, you get a budget. But the One Health label was put on things that matched the One Health philosophy. That is the fact.”Isao Kurauchi, former Fukuoka Prefectural Assembly speaker
He said the importance of One Health had not changed and that cost-effectiveness should be verified with expert input, with anything that needs reviewing reviewed.
Prefecture puts five-year spending at 437.8 billion yen
The prefecture's administrative reform council, which is reviewing One Health policy, found that related projects over the five years through fiscal 2026 totaled 437.8 billion yen, the prefecture disclosed. In August, Hattori said related budgets had been organized as One Health spending "without clear criteria" and froze projects not yet started.
Kurauchi responded at the time with a statement saying he hoped necessary projects would resume promptly to improve residents' welfare.