By HARUFUMI MORI/ Staff Writer
October 28, 2019 at 16:50 JST
SAITAMA--Takashi Tachibana, the leader of a party that aims to destroy Japan Broadcasting Corp. (NHK), the public broadcaster, was defeated in an Upper House by-election here on Oct. 27 by former Saitama Governor Kiyoshi Ueda.
Tachibana, 52, who heads NHK Kara Kokumin wo Mamoru To (Party to protect the public from NHK), gave up his Diet seat earlier in October to run in the race.
Tachibana hoped that by winning the Saitama seat and having another member of his party, known as N-Koku for short, fill the seat he vacated, the party could increase its Diet presence.
Tachibana had said his chances of victory were high as the ruling Liberal Democratic Party wouldn't be fielding a candidate.
Ueda, 71, Tachibana's only opponent, ran as an independent. He garnered about 1.07 million votes, while Tachibana received 168,289 votes. Ueda's term will run until July 2022.
Voter turnout, at 20.81 percent, barely topped an all-time low of 17.8 percent recorded in an Upper House by-election in the same electoral district in 1991. The 1991 figure was the lowest for any by-election for the Upper House or Lower House.
The Oct. 27 by-election was held after incumbent Motohiro Ono resigned in a successful bid to run for Saitama governor in the August election.
Ueda, who tussled fiercely with the LDP while governor, received informal backing from the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and the Democratic Party for the People.
The LDP had difficulty in fielding its own candidate. Since Ueda ran without official opposition support and is in favor of constitutional amendment, the LDP left it up to its members to decide whom to back in the race.
Ueda, who ran on his 16-year experience as Saitama governor over four terms, emphasized in his campaign that he will focus on revitalization of local regions and reforming the social security system.
“I want to do my best by realizing my given mission,” Ueda said on the night of Oct. 27.
Tachibana joined the Saitama race just before the official campaigning kicked off and ran on a platform to reduce the consumption tax rate to 5 percent from the current 10 percent among other pledges.
The politician had been under fire for posting a YouTube video in which he suggested genocide could solve the world's overpopulation problems. He is also alleged to have threatened an assemblyman in Tokyo's Chuo Ward who was elected with backing from N-Koku.
During the campaign, Tachibana said that if he couldn't win the Upper House seat, he would run in the mayoral election in Ebina, Kanagawa Prefecture, in November.
N-Koku stunned Japan's political world in July by winning a Diet seat in the Upper House election. The party grabbed headlines for its rallying cry “Destroy NHK.”
Tachibana, a former NHK employee, has proposed scrambling NHK broadcasts so that people who do not watch the public broadcaster’s programs can avoid paying subscription fees.
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