Itabashi Ward Councilor in the Middle of the “30-person Banquet Cancellation Scandal” Makes an Exclusive Confession: “I Will Not Change My Statement Even If I Am Slandered”

Immediately after the news broke on the Internet, my office was bombarded with letters, e-mails, and phone calls slandering me. I am aware that as a member of the Diet, I am in a position to be questioned about my actions as I hold a public office. However, if things continue as they are, articles that are not true based on one-sided reporting will continue to be circulated and become a fait accompli. That is unacceptable.

Yasuko Igarashi, 59, a member of the Itabashi Ward Assembly and a member of the Social Democratic Party, is the subject of much criticism after some web media reported on May 16 that she had backed out of a banquet for 30 people without permission.

The following is a summary of the disturbance reported by the web media. Mr. Igarashi made a reservation for 30 people at a Chinese restaurant in Itabashi Ward, where he had dined on April 10, for a party to celebrate his election as Itabashi Ward assemblyman on April 29. However, on the day of the event, Mr. Igarashi and others did not show up at the restaurant. Although the restaurant had hired additional staff and prepared foodstuffs, some of them were destroyed.

However, Igarashi insists, “The facts are completely different from the reports. Immediately after the first news report, he was mentally trapped by the enormous number of slanderous remarks, but a month has passed, and he confessed his current feelings exclusively to this magazine (all statements in parentheses are by Mr. Igarashi).

After the news report came out, I received many letters and phone calls to my office, calling me a “tax thief” and a “scum councilor. I was so depressed that I couldn’t do my job. But I called to cancel. I have published that claim on my official website, along with the circumstances of the incident.”

The single point of contention in the furor was whether there was any fact that he had cancelled the event. What evidence does Mr. Igarashi have to support his claim? In response to this reporter’s question, Mr. Igarashi presented the call history of his mobile phone. He pointed to the “history of April 11,” and said, “I am sure that I was comforted on April 10.

I made a reservation for a consolation party on April 10. The number of people was still undecided, so I said I would contact them as soon as it was decided. The day after that, I confirmed the number of participants and found that there were several people who could not attend on the 29th. So the next day, on the 11th, I called the restaurant to cancel the reservation. This is the call history from that time: I called the restaurant at 7:37 pm on the 11th, and the call lasted 59 seconds.

It was a man who answered the phone. I thought it was not her husband because her voice was young, but I told her that I was cancelling the call and the man replied ‘yes’. ‘ Therefore, we assumed that the cancellation had gone through.”

Meanwhile, the restaurant stubbornly denies having received the call, according to J-CAST News on May 16,

The manager of the restaurant stressed that he had not received a call about the cancellation, and he shrugged his shoulders, saying, “In the more than 30 years I’ve been doing this, I’ve never seen anything like this” and “I’m extremely frustrated that I was cheated.

The company posted the store’s claims. On the other hand, in a May 18 TV Asahi report, the owner’s son was interviewed, in which he said,

I don’t have any memory of it. 30 people, it’s not so easy. I think I still have a sense of it, though.

I think I still have a sense of it,” he said.

I called him several times after that to see if we could have a meeting, but he called me on May 15. However, when I talked to her husband on the phone on May 15, the conversation remained on a parallel track. Then the next day, the first report appeared on the Internet news.”

One of the reasons for the uproar that spread so far was Igarashi’s lack of confirmation. When he called to cancel the reservation, he did not confirm the name of the person he was talking to, nor did he ask the owner to leave a message.

He added, “Reservations are made directly with the owner’s wife, who runs the restaurant. I should have added, ‘Please tell the owner’s wife. I should have added, ‘Please tell the owner’s wife.’ There may have been some areas where I should have been more polite.

However, as long as I have cancelled the restaurant, I believe that I have a responsibility to those who trusted me to stand up for what I say in response to media reports that are not true. If I could have found a satisfactory landing point for both me and my husband, I would be happy to compensate you for the cost of the food you have prepared. Because we are both residents of Itabashi Ward, I hope that we can resolve this issue through dialogue rather than confrontation.

A satisfactory end to the matter is awaited.