{"id":178792,"date":"2026-07-31T10:43:55","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T01:43:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/?post_type=news&#038;p=178792&#038;lang=en"},"modified":"2026-07-31T10:43:55","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T01:43:55","slug":"fukuoka-expands-overseas-spending-probe","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/en\/news\/fukuoka-expands-overseas-spending-probe\/","title":{"rendered":"Fukuoka Expands Overseas Spending Probe"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Fukuoka Governor Seitaro Hattori announced on July 30 that the prefecture will expand its independent investigation into controversial overseas travel expenses to include the Fukuoka Prefectural Assembly, reversing his previous position that the legislature should conduct its own review. Hattori said the prefecture could no longer wait for the assembly to act. Last week, he announced that a third-party committee, established under Japan Federation of Bar Associations guidelines, would investigate overseas trips taken by the governor and other prefectural executive officials. The committee\u2019s mandate will now be broadened to examine documents related to overseas travel by assembly members as well. The investigation will cover the past five years, matching the scope of the review already planned for the governor and the prefectural executive. <strong>Source:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/kbc.co.jp\/news\/article.php?id=17863305&#038;ymd=2026-07-30\" target=\"_blank\">KBC News<\/a> \/ <a href=\"https:\/\/news.tnc.co.jp\/news\/articles\/NID2026073031452\" target=\"_blank\">TNC News<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/fnn_fukuoka-governor-overseas-spending-probe_2026_cl.jpg?resize=1382%2C772&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"1382\" height=\"772\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-178793\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/fnn_fukuoka-governor-overseas-spending-probe_2026_cl.jpg?w=1382&amp;ssl=1 1382w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/fnn_fukuoka-governor-overseas-spending-probe_2026_cl.jpg?resize=300%2C168&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/fnn_fukuoka-governor-overseas-spending-probe_2026_cl.jpg?resize=1024%2C572&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/fnn_fukuoka-governor-overseas-spending-probe_2026_cl.jpg?resize=768%2C429&amp;ssl=1 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><br \/>\nPhoto: KBC News<\/p>\n<p>Get Fukuoka and Kyushu\u2019s top stories delivered to your inbox. The Now is Fukuoka Now\u2019s free biweekly newsletter featuring local news, events, culture, business, and community updates in English. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/en\/mailmagazine\/\">Subscribe to The Now<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Summaries based on public content, errors may occur during translation. Images credited independently. Send feedback using <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/en\/contact\/\">this <strong>form<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fukuoka Governor Seitaro Hattori announced on July 30 that the prefecture will expand its independent investigation into controversial overseas travel expenses&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30292,"featured_media":178793,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","tags":[],"class_list":["post-178792","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","location-fukuoka-prefecture","news-category-politics","en-US"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/178792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30292"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178792"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}