With little progress in building hydrogen filling stations, Kameoka City Government, Kyoto Prefecture, is struggling to fuel the mayor's official car, which is a fuel cell vehicle (FCV). The prefectural government has failed to accomplish its goal of establishing one hydrogen station in the Tamba area by 2020, causing the mayor's FCV to travel almost 40 kilometers just to visit a station in Kyoto City.

In September 2021, Kameoka City Government purchased a Toyota Mirai as the mayor's official vehicle in response to the wishes of citizens who had donated approximately 18 million yen and utilizing national government subsidies. The city government said, "We need to be ahead of the curve as we strive to be an Environmentally Friendly City and have made the Kameoka Zero-Carbon Declaration," but there is no hydrogen station in the city. They use a station in Fushimi Ward, Kyoto, about 18 kilometers away from city hall, which takes roughly 40 minutes one way.

 

The city government's Secretarial Office explained, "We take as much advantage as possible of official trips to Kyoto City or Osaka to fuel up." However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of business trips has decreased and out of 50 trips for fueling between September 2021 and October 2022, 35 were made just to refuel.

The city council, which had pointed out the fuel problem prior to purchase, has been critical, commenting, "Taxpayers' money is used to maintain the official vehicle. It is waste of labor costs and staff time." Mayor Takahiro Katsuragawa said, "I agree the criticism is valid, but the city government cannot build its own station for the mayor’s car," and there is no choice but to continue going to Fushimi.