Photo/Illutration Takashi Tachibana, leader of the anti-NHK political party, speaks at an Upper House election campaign rally in Kobe on July 9. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

KOBE--Hyogo prefectural police said they abruptly arrested Takashi Tachibana, head of the anti-NHK political party, because he was a flight risk and had the opportunity to destroy evidence.

Tachibana, 58, was arrested on Nov. 9 on suspicion of defaming a former Hyogo prefectural assembly member who killed himself in January this year.

Police had been questioning Tachibana on a voluntary basis since the widow of Hideaki Takeuchi, the former prefectural assembly member, filed a criminal complaint about five months ago.

One investigative source explained why police decided to arrest him.

“Information that (Tachibana) had gone overseas was one reason to recognize the risk of flight, which is a requirement for arrest,” the source said.

According to Tachibana’s posts on X, he left Japan for Dubai on Oct. 27.

He also uploaded a video on his account, showing him against a backdrop of the Dubai cityscape lined with skyscrapers.

“I met with royalty,” he said in the recording. “I’m having business meetings.”

According to the post, the video was recorded on Oct. 29. He appears to have returned to Japan on Oct. 30.

Hyogo prefectural police were aware of Tachibana’s travel information and the video, the source said.

Investigators also wanted to avoid a repeat of the situation surrounding another Japanese politician, Yoshikazu Higashitani, who had refused to return from the United Arab Emirates to face questioning by Tokyo police in 2023.

Higashitani, also known as YouTuber GaaSyy, was accused of creating videos that threatened celebrities and other people. The National Police Agency asked Interpol to place Higashitani on an international wanted notice.

He returned to Japan about two and a half months after Tokyo police obtained an arrest warrant.

In Tachibana’s case, police were also concerned that he could destroy evidence.

Tachibana is accused of spreading false information about Takeuchi online in connection with an internal whistleblower document controversy in Hyogo Prefecture.

He called Takeuchi the “mastermind” behind the whistleblower document that accused Hyogo Governor Motohiko Saito of harassment and other misconduct.

Even after Takeuchi resigned from the assembly, Tachibana falsely claimed that he was under investigation by police and faced imminent arrest.

Regarding the source of Tachibana’s claims, he explained on his YouTube channel that in November last year he had received messages from two people saying, “We heard that Takeuchi is being taken to the police,” and, “Apparently, he’s undergoing voluntary questioning for about three hours every day.”

Before his arrest, Tachibana argued that those exchanges gave him a reasonable basis for believing them to be true, which, he said, exempts him from criminal liability.

The exchanges between Tachibana and his sources were considered important evidence during the investigation.

“If the voluntary questioning continued, he would remain in a situation where he could freely communicate with his sources,” an investigative source said. “We judged that we could not rule out the risk of evidence destruction.”

 

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