Kurokawa and Tsubasa Party Suspects Arrested, But Tokyo Gubernatorial Election Campaign Continues

Still, it doesn’t seem like “Boom Hey Hey Hey” will disappear anytime soon.

 

On May 17th, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police arrested three individuals from the political group “Tsubasa no To” on suspicion of violating the Public Offices Election Act (obstruction of freedom) for obstructing street speeches by other camps during the April by-election in Tokyo’s 15th district. The arrested individuals are Atsuhiko Kurokawa, the representative of the party, Ryosuke Nemoto, the secretary-general, and Yuto Sugita, the head of the organization headquarters. Their responses to the allegations have not been disclosed.

The Second Investigation Division established a special investigation headquarters, the first since the investment fraud case involving Near Future Communications in 2006. A former Tokyo Metropolitan Police official commented,

“Cases involving the delicate balance between freedom of expression and other rights are inherently challenging. Nevertheless, due to complaints from other camps and growing public outcry, they decided to make the arrests. Naturally, there would have been discussions with the prosecution beforehand about whether to proceed with charges. The establishment of a special investigation headquarters was surprising, but it shows the seriousness of the situation. In a way, it feels like a state-sponsored investigation.”

After 23 days of detention, the fate of the three suspects will be determined by whether they are prosecuted or not. According to the former police official mentioned earlier.