Investigators say city councilman was involved in monkey business.

According to the Shimane Prefectural Police, on a June night in 2024, Kiyoshi Inata ventured out of his home in the town of Yonago, where he serves as a city councilman. Inata wasn’t headed out to enjoy the warm air of an early summer’s evening, though, but to have a clandestine meeting in a parking lot within the city limits.

As a member of the city council since 2010 who had been reelected multiple times, and who was even the council’s chairman in 2022, Inata has considerable clout within the local administration, and according to the police, it was that influence that his counterpart at the meeting was looking to buy. At the meeting, the councilman allegedly accepted a bribe of one million yen (approximately US$6,500) in exchange for advancing a specific agenda within the city council. What was that agenda?

Reduce the number of monkeys at Yonago’s Minatoyama Park.

▼ Video of Minatoyama Park

Although Minatoyama is a public park, the city contracts with a company called Yonago Public Park Partners Joint Venture for its management and maintenance of the park’s facilities, which include a Japanese garden, a cherry blossom tree grove, and, yes, a monkey habitat. Naturally, the more monkeys the park has, the more it costs to take care of them, and investigators say that it was a representative of the company, looking to cut costs, who delivered the bribe to the 56-year-old Inata.

Records show that since the alleged date of the bribe, Inata has spoken at least twice at city council meetings about decreasing the number of monkeys at the park, once in September of 2024, saying…

“Aren’t there maybe too many monkeys? I’ve been to the park many times, well maybe not so many, but recently I’ve gone to see [the monkey habitat], and I don’t think it’s such a good environment. I mean, it’s not like we can actually discuss the matter with the monkeys.”

…and again in March of 2025…

“Moving on to other matters, I’d like to make certain that we will reduce the number of monkeys, and in addition emphasize the option of abolishing the habitat within the park as a means to do so.”

▼ Video of Inata’s council meeting remarks

On Tuesday, Inata was arrested on charges of accepting bribery by officers from Tottori’s Prefectural Police Investigation Division 2, who also referred the representative of Yonago Public Park Partners Joint Venture, a Yonago resident in his 70s, to public prosecutors.

▼ It’s unclear if the case falls under the jurisdiction of Investigation Division 2 because Division 1 handles more urgent matters than monkey-related bribery, or because the crime is so serious that it requires specialized expert knowledge.

In the time since Inata’s calls to reduce the park’s primate population, the number of monkeys in the facility has decreased from roughly 50 of the animals to 37 today. There have also been three incidents of monkeys escaping from the park since 2023. Inata mentioned the escapes in his remarks last year, citing them as a reason why the habitat should be shut down promptly, though in light of the bribery accusations it’s hard not to wonder if maybe the facility’s management was being purposely lax in keeping the enclosure securely locked in order to sway public opinion towards shutting it down entirely.

It’s worth considering that reducing the size of the park’s monkey population may not itself be a bad idea. If the management company truly is struggling financially to maintain the habitat, finding proper homes for them elsewhere, where they can receive the care they require, would give them longer, happier lives. However, it becomes harder to believe that someone’s motivations are noble when their methods involve illegal cash handoffs under cover of darkness, and so hopefully the decision of what to do about the park’s monkeys will now be made out of genuine concern for their welfare, not who can end up with more money in their pockets.

Source: Yomiuri Shimbun via Itai News, FNN Prime Online
Top image: Pakutaso
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