Photo/Illutration Mizuho Umemura delivers a speech during her campaign for the leader of Nippon Ishin (Japan Innovation Party) in Tokyo’s Chiyoda Ward on Aug. 16, 2022. (Taro Kotegawa)

Nippon Ishin (Japan Innovation Party) sacked a lawmaker from the Upper House Committee on Judicial Affairs after she came under fire for suggesting a Sri Lankan woman who died in an immigration detention center might have faked her illness.

“I accept the party’s decision, obviously,” Mizuho Umemura said on May 18 but ruled out resigning as a lawmaker, saying, “I believe in what I’ve said.”

However, Nippon Ishin party officials were highly critical of Umemura for her comments pertaining to Wishma Sandamali, 33, who died in the Nagoya Regional Immigration Services Bureau facility in March 2021.

“She was utterly inappropriate in making irrational statements based on her preconceptions and imagination,” said Fumitake Fujita, the opposition party’s secretary-general.

“She is way too immature as a lawmaker,” said party leader Nobuyuki Baba. “She confuses a Diet debate with a chat over a pint at a pub.”

At a Diet session on May 12, Umemura said, “(The detainee’s) supporters might have given her faint hope that she might be granted a temporary release if she became ill. That could have led to the situation where a doctor pointed to the possibility that she was faking her illness. Such possibilities can’t be denied.”

Umemura argued at a Diet session on May 18 that lawmakers are justified in discussing the possibilities of supporters’ good intentions gone wrong.

Sandamali was detained for overstaying her visa in August 2020. She died after the detention center staff failed to offer her the necessary medical care despite her deteriorating health.

(This article was written by Takero Yamazaki and Nozomi Matsui.)