is a social activist, journalist, accountant and politician who is the founder and leader of . A former assemblyman for the

Funabashi is a city located in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 644,668 in 309,238 households and a population density of . The total area of the city is . It is the Greater Tokyo Area's 7th most populated city (after p ...

City Assembly and the

Katsushika is a special ward located in Tokyo, Japan. The ward calls itself Katsushika City in English. As of May 1, 2015, the ward has an estimated population of 444,356, and a population density of 12,770 people per km². The total area is 34.80 ...

Ward Assembly, he was elected to the

House of Councillors The is the upper house of the National Diet of Japan. The House of Representatives is the lower house. The House of Councillors is the successor to the pre-war House of Peers. If the two houses disagree on matters of the budget, treaties, or ...

in the July 2019 regular election on his party's

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...

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.

Career

He was an accountant, program producer and executive assistant of Katsuji Ebisawa, the chairman of

NHK , also known as NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized initialism in Japanese, is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee. NHK operates two terrestr ...

from 1997 through 2005. He leaked information about NHK's

accounting scandals Accounting, also known as accountancy, is the measurement, processing, and communication of financial and non financial information about economic entities such as businesses and corporations. Accounting, which has been called the "language ...

to the

Shukan Bunshun A week is a unit of time equal to seven days. It is the standard time period used for short cycles of days in most parts of the world. The days are often used to indicate common work days and rest days, as well as days of worship. Weeks are oft ...

in 2005., which forced him to retire. He founded an internet watchdog TV show concentrating on

in 2011.

Political career

In November 2017, he won the

ward assembly election in Tokyo at 2954 votes. On 27 December, the

Tokyo District Court is a district court located at 1-1-4 Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the ...

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 is a high court in Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The is a special branch of Tokyo High Court. Japan has eight high courts: Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Hiroshima, Fukuoka, Sendai, Sapporo, and Takamatsu. Each court has jurisdiction over one o ...

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. 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 Bipolar disorder, previously known as manic depression, is a mental disorder characterized by periods of depression and periods of abnormally elevated mood that last from days to weeks each. If the elevated mood is severe or associated with ...

and

schizophrenia Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by continuous or relapsing episodes of psychosis. Major symptoms include hallucinations (typically hearing voices), delusions, and disorganized thinking. Other symptoms include social wit ...

. In May 2020, Tachibana founded the

Horiemon New Party The is a Japanese regional political party based in Tokyo founded by Takashi Tachibana on 20 May 2020. The party is named after Takafumi Horie, an Internet entrepreneur whose nickname is "Horiemon", which is derived from time-traveling cartoon r ...

. Tachibana named the party after entrepreneur

Takafumi Horie is a Japanese entrepreneur who founded Livedoor, a website design operation that grew into a popular internet portal. After being arrested and charged with securities fraud in 2006, he severed all connections with the company. His trial began o ...

(who was given the nickname "Horiemon" due to his resemblance to the manga character

Doraemon ''Doraemon'' ( ja, ドラえもん ) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Fujiko F. Fujio. The manga was first serialized in December 1969, with its 1,345 individual chapters compiled into 45 ''tankōbon'' volumes and ...

) 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.

Controversies

Shingo Watanabe video

Tachibana published a video about Shingo Watanabe, a member of

Settsu is a city located in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. As of 2017, the city has an estimated population of 85,290 and a population density of 5,664 people per km². The total area is 14.88 km². Surrounding municipalities *Osaka Prefecture **Higa ...

city assembly. The video alleged that Watanabe knew the condition of the corpse of Moritomo Gakuen officials. Watanabe made a libel for

criminal charge A criminal charge is a formal accusation made by a governmental authority (usually a public prosecutor or the police) asserting that somebody has committed a crime. A charging document, which contains one or more criminal charges or counts, can ...

and damages against Tachibana. The Tokyo High Court, in charge of criminal litigation, charged him with an

indemnification In contract law, an indemnity is a contractual obligation of one party (the ''indemnitor'') to compensate the loss incurred by another party (the ''indemnitee'') due to the relevant acts of the indemnitor or any other party. The duty to indemni ...

in the

civil litigation Civil law is a major branch of the law.Glanville Williams. '' Learning the Law''. Eleventh Edition. Stevens. 1982. p. 2. In common law legal systems such as England and Wales and the United States, the term refers to non-criminal law. The law ...

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

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 Overpopulation or overabundance is a phenomenon in which a species' population becomes larger than the carrying capacity of its environment. This may be caused by increased birth rates, lowered mortality rates, reduced predation or large scal ...

. 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." 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.

Conviction for forcible obstruction of business

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.

Electoral record

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tachibana, Takashi 1967 births Living people Japanese activists Japanese journalists Members of the House of Councillors (Japan) NHK Japanese municipal councilors Politicians from Chiba Prefecture Politicians from Tokyo People from Izumiōtsu, Osaka People with bipolar disorder People with schizophrenia Japanese male YouTubers Japanese YouTubers Politicians from Osaka Prefecture