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Takashi Tachibana

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For the journalist, see Takashi Tachibana (journalist).

Takashi Tachibana
立花 孝志
Tachibana in 2021
Leader of the NHK Party
Incumbent
Assumed office
7 April 2023
(Disputed with Ayaka Otsu)
DeputyHodaka Maruyama
Preceded byAyaka Otsu
In office
17 June 2013 – 8 March 2023
DeputyHodaka Maruyama
Preceded byPosition established
Succeeded byAyaka Otsu
Leader of the Horiemon New Party
Incumbent
Assumed office
20 May 2020
Member of the House of Councillors
In office
29 July 2019 – 10 October 2019
Succeeded bySatoshi Hamada
Parliamentary groupMinna no Tō
ConstituencyProportional
Member of the Katsushika Ward Assembly
In office
13 November 2017 – 26 May 2019
Member of the Funabashi City Assembly
In office
1 May 2015 – 14 July 2016
Personal details
Born (1967-08-15) 15 August 1967 (age 57)
Izumiōtsu, Osaka, Japan
Political partyNHK Party (National)
Horiemon New (Prefectural)
Other political
affiliations		Minna no Tō (until 2013)
OccupationSocial activist, journalist, accountant, politician

Takashi Tachibana (立花 孝志, Tachibana Takashi, born 15 August 1967) is a Japanese social activist, journalist, accountant and politician who is the founder and leader of the NHK Party (NHK党, NHK tō). A former assemblyman for the Funabashi City Assembly and the Katsushika Ward Assembly, he was elected to the House of Councillors in the July 2019 regular election on his party's proportional representation list. He automatically forfeited his seat on 10 October when he officially became a candidate in the October 2019 by-election to the House of Councillors for a majoritarian seat in Saitama.[1]

Career

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He was an accountant, program producer and executive assistant of Katsuji Ebisawa, the chairman of NHK from 1997 through 2005. He leaked information about NHK's accounting scandals to the Shukan Bunshun in 2005,[2] which forced him to retire. He founded an internet watchdog TV show concentrating on NHK in 2011.

Political career

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He worked briefly in Osaka for the once-Democratic Party representative Hiroyuki Moriyama, before becoming a brief supporter of the Your Party. He then founded the NHK Receipt Fee Nonpayment Party on the 17th of June in 2013. He later changed its name to "The Party to Protect the People from NHK" and became its representative. Following this, he ran for a few local offices, including Settsu City Council in 2013, and then the Machida City Council in 2014. He lost both, but managed to win a seat on the Funabashi City Council in 2015. He resigned from the seat to then run in the 2016 Tokyo gubernatorial election, which he lost and placed 8th in with 0.42% of the vote.

In November 2017, he won the Katsushika ward assembly election in Tokyo at 2,954 votes. On 27 December, the Tokyo District Court dismissed his request to sue the owner of one seg cell phone for the contract of NHK bill collection. In June 2018, the Tokyo High Court supported the district court's decision.

Tachibana leads The Party to Protect the People from NHK, which distributes stickers for the purpose of expelling NHK reception bill collectors.[3] He supports scrambled broadcasting of NHK, such that only viewers who want to watch NHK need to pay the broadcast fees.

Tachibana was elected as a member of Japan's House of Councillors at the election for the House of Councillors at 2019.

He acknowledged he had bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.[4][5]

In May 2020, Tachibana founded the Horiemon New Party.[6] Tachibana named the party after entrepreneur Takafumi Horie (who was given the nickname "Horiemon" due to his resemblance to the manga character Doraemon) and uses Horie's likeliness in campaign ads. Despite this, Horie has publicly stated that he does not have any connection to the party and that Tachibana used his name and likeliness without his permission.[7]

Tachibana then used the Horiemon New Party as a platform to run for the 2020 Tokyo gubernatorial election. He spent over 9 million yen on candidates for the party, and, as a result, ran three candidates for the office, himself included. The two extra candidates were part of a strategy to give Tachibana three times as much space as other candidates, and his name was the only one that appeared on posters for the other two candidates. Ultimately, he won 43,912 votes, or 0.72% of the total. He placed sixth overall. All together, counting the extra two candidates, his party won 0.89% of the vote.[8]

The Anti-NHK party then ran candidates in the 2021 Japanese general election, but failed to win any seats, falling short of the national proportional vote requirement. However, in the 2022 Japanese House of Councillors election, his party won over 2% of the vote total, meaning that it won an extra House of Councillors seat. This thus gave it 2 in the House of Councillors, meaning that it now held more seats than the successors to the Japan Socialist Party, the Social Democratic Party.

In March of 2023, Tachibana resigned as leader of the NHK Party. He stated this was over the controversy caused by the former House of Councilors member GaaSyy, who was expelled from the House of Councilors following his failure to report to the diet and give a formal apology due to his repeated absences. GaaSyy had an arrest warrant out for him over threats made by him online, and despite the immunity given to members of the House of Councilors, opted not to return to Japan. Tachibana stated he "[had] to take responsibility as the party leader[.]" He also renamed the party to Seijika Joshi 48, and was succeeded by Ayaka Otsu, a former child actor, as leader of the Seijika Joshi 48.[9]

In 2024, he ran in the Hyogo gubernatorial election but conducted an unusual campaign, urging people to vote for Motohiko Saitō instead of himself. Saitō was re-elected, and Tachibana lost the election.[10]

Controversies

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Shingo Watanabe video

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Tachibana published a video about Shingo Watanabe, a member of Settsu city assembly. The video alleged that Watanabe knew the condition of the corpse of Moritomo Gakuen officials.[clarification needed] Watanabe made a libel for criminal charge and damages against Tachibana. The Tokyo High Court, in charge of criminal litigation, charged him with an indemnification in the civil litigation and ordered a fee of 300,000 yen. Watanabe then criticized Tachibana who insisted that the case was without foundation, stated that there was a problem in the law mind spirit, and refused to pay the 300,000 yen fee.

Comments justifying genocide

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In September 2019, Tachibana was reported by Asahi Shimbun to have appeared in a video where he appeared to justify the use of genocide as a solution for overpopulation.[11] In the video, he also questioned Japan's aid for underdeveloped countries, saying that poverty and violence were part of "The natural order God created." He also stated in reference to third world countries: "It's impossible to teach dogs. (They're) close to being dogs. There are an overwhelming number of people like that in the world. These countries have babies to the point of idiocy."[12] In a subsequent video issued on his YouTube channel, he rejected these reports, said he was not in favor of such policies, and that he only said these things in order to generate controversy and media coverage.[13]

Conviction for forcible obstruction of business

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In September 2019, Tachibana recorded video footage of a business mobile terminal displaying the personal information of NHK subscribers. In November 2019, he contacted the NHK and threatened to release the subscriber information online. This resulted in the broadcaster being forced to provide explanations to relevant subscribers. Tachibana was subsequently tried and convicted of forcible obstruction of business. In January 2022, he received a suspended sentence of two and a half years in prison.[14]

Electoral record

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Date Election Constituency Nomination Votes Share Total candidates Rank achieved Rank needed to win Result
8 September 2013 Settsu City (Osaka) assembly general (at-large) N-Koku 317 1.1% 29 25 21 Lost
23 February 2014 Machida City (Tokyo) assembly general (at-large) N-Koku 1,589 1.1% 41 38 36 Lost
26 April 2015 Funabashi City (Chiba) assembly general (at-large) N-Koku 2,622 1.4% 73 35 50 Won
(forfeited/resigned mid-term)
31 July 2016 Tokyo Metropolis gubernatorial (at-large) N-Koku 27,241 0.4% 21 8 1 Lost
22 January 2017 Ibaraki City (Osaka) assembly general (at-large) N-Koku 1,531 1.7% 43 33 28 Lost
2 July 2017 Tokyo Metropolis assembly general Katsushika City N-Koku 4,463 2.4% 8 8 4 Lost
12 November 2017 Katsushika City (Tokyo) assembly general (at-large) N-Koku 2,954 1.9% 59 33 40 Won
(forfeited/resigned mid-term)
9 June 2019 Sakai City (Osaka) mayoral (at-large) N-Koku 14,110 5.1% 3 3 1 Lost
21 July 2019 25th House of Councillors regular proportional
N-Koku list		 N-Koku 987,885[nb 1]
130,233[nb 2] 		2.0%[nb 1]
88.8%[nb 2] 		13:[nb 3] 155[nb 4]
4[nb 2] 		n/a[nb 5]
1[nb 2] 		50[nb 5]
1[nb 2] 		Won
(forfeited/resigned mid-term)
27 October 2019 24th House of Councillors by-election Saitama N-Koku 168,289 13.6% 2 2 1 Lost
10 November 2019 Ebina City (Kanagawa) mayoral (at-large) N-Koku 2,990 5.5% 3 3 1 Lost
24 November 2019 Sakurai City (Nara) mayoral (at-large) N-Koku 1,294 8.3% 2 2 1 Lost
8 December 2019 Koganei City (Tokyo) mayoral (at-large) N-Koku 678 1.7% 4 4 1 Lost
5 July 2020 Tokyo Metropolis gubernatorial (at-large) Horiemon New 43,912 0.72% 22 6 1 Lost
  1. ^ a b Party proportional vote result
  2. ^ a b c d e Tachibana's individual preference vote result within the N-Koku list
  3. ^ Lists standing in proportional election
  4. ^ Total number of candidates standing in proportional election
  5. ^ a b The proportional district elects 50 members by proportional representation, not by a majoritarian (FPTP/SNTV) system

References

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  1. ^ Mainichi Shimbun, 10 October 2019: N国・立花氏が議員失職 浜田氏繰り上げ当選へ Archived 12 October 2019 at the Wayback Machine, retrieved 12 October 2019.
  2. ^ NHK膿と闇、経理職員が激白「想像を上回る不正」. Zakzak (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 13 June 2014.
  3. ^ "'NHK Repelling Stickers' free for anyone wanting to keep away Japan's public TV fee collectors". Japan Today. Retrieved 19 December 2017.
  4. ^ Takashi, Tachibana (4 October 2018). "私立花孝志は【統合失調症】&【躁ウツ病】でした". Takashi Tachibana's YouTube channel (in Japanese). Retrieved 24 August 2019.
  5. ^ Shūkan Bunshun (21 August 2019). "N国・立花孝志 カネと女と躁鬱 月収3000万円、母も驚いた新恋人、病いを公言【全文公開】". Yahoo! Japan (in Japanese). Retrieved 24 August 2019.
  6. ^ @tachibanat (25 May 2020). "本日【ホリエモン新党】を立党しました.代表者は私立花孝志目的は、東京改造計画【東京都への緊急提言37項】の実現です.明日14時〜東京都庁記者クラブで記者会見を行います" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  7. ^ "不出馬なのに「ホリエモン」ポスターはなぜOK? 都知事選で選管に問い合わせ300件超". Tokyo Shimbun (in Japanese). 29 June 2020.
  8. ^ Fahey, Rob (3 July 2020). "Tokyo's 2020 Election Devolves into Circus - Tokyo Review".
  9. ^ "NHK Party Leader Quits amid Strife over Absent Upper House Member". The Japan News. 9 March 2023. Retrieved 10 November 2023.
  10. ^ "斎藤さんが圧勝しなければならない。圧倒的な得票差でもう一度戻さなければいけない」などと呼びかけ". Sankei Shimbun. Retrieved 18 November 2024.
  11. ^ "Anti-NHK party chief goes off the rails in urging 'genocide'". The Asahi Shimbun. 29 September 2019. Retrieved 20 November 2019.
  12. ^ "Leader of Japan's anti-NHK party suggests genocide as solution to overpopulation". Japan Times. 27 September 2019. Retrieved 29 September 2019.
  13. ^ N国党首、人口増に「虐殺」言及 共同通信の記事に対する反論 (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 11 December 2021 – via YouTube.
  14. ^ Endo, Koji (20 January 2022). "Anti-NHK party head convicted for threats to leak subscriber info online". The Mainichi. Retrieved 21 January 2022.
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