THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
May 20, 2024 at 15:57 JST
Ryosuke Nemoto, right, secretary-general of political group Tsubasa no To, records Atsuhiko Kurokawa, leader of the group, making a speech outside the Metropolitan Police Department headquarters in Tokyo’s Chiyoda Ward on May 15. (Arata Mitsui)
YouTube videos released by political group Tsubasa no To showing unruly election antics that led to three arrests have received more than 2.5 million views, according to police.
In the 12-day campaign period for the April 28 Lower House by-election in Tokyo, the group live-streamed around 40 videos featuring members disrupting other candidates’ speeches with loudspeakers and chasing their campaign vehicles.
Ryosuke Nemoto, secretary-general of Tsubasa no To, finished last in the nine-candidate race. But during the campaign, he showed that winning a Diet seat was perhaps not the group’s top priority.
“Our ad revenue has been soaring. The number of views is skyrocketing, too,” Nemoto said in a video released on April 22. “I want to turn this into a business and expand it.”
On May 17, Tokyo police arrested Nemoto, 29, group leader Atsuhiko Kurokawa, 45, and Hayato Sugita, 39, a campaign staffer, on suspicion of obstructing freedom of election in violation of the Public Offices Election Law.
The trio were referred to prosecutors on May 19.
Police said they confirmed the group disrupted the speeches of three candidates on at least five occasions and stalked their campaign cars on at least 10 occasions.
To avoid disruptions, some of the rival campaigns chose to keep their schedules and locations for street speeches undisclosed.
However, Tsubasa no To used social media to ask for the locations of rival campaigns during live streaming and then headed to the speech venues, according to investigators.
Similarly, the three suspects used X, formerly Twitter, to identify the home address of Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike, who supported a rival candidate. They then live-streamed themselves making loud claims in front of her house.
Even after the by-election, they continued their disruptive behavior and live-streamed themselves outside Metropolitan Police Department headquarters.
(This article was written by Tabito Fukutomi and Arata Mitsui.)
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