Police Investigate Fukai’s Violation of Public Office Election Law After Distribution of Leaflets on Election Day

The Abiko City Council election was held on November 19. Twenty-nine candidates ran for the 24-member council, and Atsushi Sawada (40), a professional wrestler, won the third election, attracting much attention from sports newspapers and other media.

One newcomer to the city council, Yuya Fukai (35), came in second place.

 

After graduating from a local high school, he went on to study at the controversial Nihon University. After working for a major real estate company, he worked for a local real estate company and took a leave of absence in August of this year. He began preparing to run for the city council.

“He uploaded videos of himself picking up trash in Teganuma Park and in front of Abiko Station, and began to attract attention as “Garbage Man”. When it came to the election period, he rode a bicycle and made street speeches while skillfully using SNS. He was the only candidate in his 30s among the candidates, and he pushed his youthfulness to the forefront to broaden his support.”

In his first election as an independent, he garnered 2,871 votes and is regarded as a hot new councilor.

“He is too serious and hard-headed.”

The property owner who leased his campaign office to him described his personality and continued, 

 

“During the election campaign, four of my friends from junior high and high school came to my office, including two classmates from college and two tennis buddies. When I told him that he need to make more friends, he nodded his head honestly. He seemed to have no support from his parents’ house, and he bargained down the 107,000 yen monthly rent from the middle of the day, saying, “I don’t have any money. I haven’t had my rent paid yet,” but when I left, he brought a commercial vacuum cleaner and carefully cleaned up.”

At first, he had a reputation as a “serious and nice young man,” but as the election campaign progressed, people began to point out the two sides of the “garbage man”.

“On September 13, he came to the city council meeting without an appointment and said, ‘I want to record the council meeting (special committee for budget review) for the public’s interest.’ After discussions with the committee chair and others, we allowed him to film on the condition that he would not process the video and that he would check the video before uploading it.” (Council Secretariat)

 

Fukai City Councilor is actually the son of a wealthy family that is well known to those in the know. His father, Hideki, is the president of HIT Corporation, known for its giant outdoor digital signage advertisements. The company is privately held, but is headquartered in Ginza and has established a local subsidiary in Singapore. FKI, a limited liability company headed by Hideki, is building a 14-story luxury condominium in a prime location at the south exit of Abiko Station, and the Fukai family’s assets are said to exceed 10 billion yen.

A former supporter of the Fukai family, an Abiko resident, said with a sigh, “The Fukai family’s assets are said to be worth more than 10 billion yen.”

“He campaigned as if he was on the side of the common people, but before he ran for office, he was living in his family’s mansion and driving a bright red car. When he decided to run for office, he went to the trouble of living temporarily in an apartment in the city. He loved being the center of attention and said, “I had a wedding at Disneyland.” The cost was about 10 million yen.”

“I was stunned when Fukai was asked what he wanted to do after becoming a city council member and he replied, “Nothing in particular” and “I don’t need the annual salary (7.71 million yen per year).” When I asked a classmate from my days at Nihon University who helped with the election, he laughed at him and said, ‘Yuya just wanted to be famous.’ But he never showed that kind of true face in front of voters. Even after he was elected, he has his wife back working as a Yakult lady and acts as a ‘good young man who sweats for the community'”

However, on the day of the election, Fukai was finally exposed for the fraud he had been hiding from the public. This was due to his own blunder. The Abiko City Council member was appalled.

“On the 19th, the day of the election, a leaflet for Fukai’s candidacy was inserted in the Yomiuri Shimbun. The election period ends on the 18th, the day before the election, and distribution outside of the election period is prohibited, which is a clear violation of the Public Offices Election Law. I was told that the matter was immediately reported to the election authorities.”

A city hall official said on condition of anonymity.

“While going through the process of closing his election office, Fukai was approached by an election official who said, ‘Distributing leaflets through inserts on voting day is a violation (of the Public Office Election Law),’ He turned pale.”

 

There is no problem with handing out leaflets to voters during speeches or having voters come to the office to pick up leaflets. It is also legal to distribute them as inserts in newspapers. However, distribution outside of the election period is prohibited. When we asked the Abiko City Election Administration Committee to confirm this, they said, “We are aware of such a story,” and continued, “The rest is up to the police. We also checked with the Yomiuri Shimbun’s Daita sales office, but received no response, saying, “It is the customer’s personal information.””

The Public Election Law is a difficult law to understand, but the prohibition on distribution of leaflets on voting day is a rudimentary mistake, like the two-step rule in chess: Toyoji Sasaki, 80, a city councilor elected for 14 terms, said , “We do nothing on voting day. It is common sense.”

On December 1, we asked him directly before the all-council meeting where the elected council members gathered.

 

–Why did you distribute leaflets with inserts in the Yomiuri Shimbun on December 19, the day of the vote?

“I can’t answer that.”

–I heard from a supporter that you ran for city council “because you want to be famous”; is this true?

With trembling fingertips, Fukai accepted the wooden box containing his councilor badge and ran to the restroom. No matter what questions were asked, he remained silent.

When the council went into recess, we directly confronted Mayor Junichiro Hoshino (65), who was coming out of the council chambers, and he stated, 

“I have received a report. Even if it was an inadvertent (mistake), rules are rules. Now it is out of the hands of the election commission and Abiko City Hall, and we are waiting for the police to make a decision.”

Ironically, Fukai’s goal of making a name for himself was realized in a way he could never have imagined.