<figure id="attachment_413720" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-413720" style="width: 1791px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="7875b6d5"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/02/5c97a51a705b3c07451bf59688a7a8e9.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-413720" class="wp-caption-text">Mr. Shinji Ishimaru was accused of violating the Public Election Law. However, in his explanatory press conference, &#8230;&#8230;</figcaption></figure>
<h2> Violation of the Public Election Law similar in composition to Governor Motohiko Saito of Hyogo Prefecture</h2>
<p> On February 7, the Kobe District Public Prosecutors Office and Hyogo Prefectural Police raided a PR firm on suspicion of violating the Public Offices Election Law.</p>
<p> On February 7, the Kobe District Public Prosecutors Office and the Hyogo Prefectural Police raided a PR firm on suspicion of violating the Public Office Act. The previous day, February 6, the Shukan Bunshun (weekly magazine) reported on Shinji Ishimaru (42), who is in the spotlight for a number of reasons, and his alleged violation of the Public Office Act.</p>
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<p> Ishimaru ran as an independent in last July&#8217;s Tokyo gubernatorial election, but his success was dubbed the &#8220;Ishimaru phenomenon&#8221; or &#8220;Ishimaru whirlwind&#8221; after he won more than 1.6 million votes, second only to incumbent Yuriko Koike (72). The election campaign was a success, with the party&#8217;s social networking activities being widely used to promote the election.</p>
<p> He was a pioneer of the &#8220;SNS election&#8221; that was highlighted in the Hyogo gubernatorial election.</p>
<p> And like Saito, Ishimaru&#8217;s alleged violation of the Public Election Law is related to this SNS.</p>
<p> Ishimaru has been distributing videos of the campaign period on his YouTube channel, but there are suspicions that the live-streamed video of the campaign rally may have been filmed by a professional contractor for a fee.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> In the column of &#8220;Expenses (Advertising Expenses)&#8221; in the &#8220;Election Campaign Expenses Balance Report&#8221; submitted by Mr. Ishimaru to the Tokyo Metropolitan Election Commission, there is an entry for 977,350 yen as expenditures for the day the live-streaming took place. The name of the expense is listed as &#8220;Cancellation fee for live-streaming equipment. The payee is a company that specializes in live distribution. This is the reason for the suspicion.</span></p>
<p> The fact that a group of people who appeared to be affiliated with this specialized company were filming at the site, and a high-quality video that appeared to have been made by professionals was distributed, even though the event was canceled, is pointed out as inexplicable.</p>
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<p> According to the Ishimaru camp&#8217;s explanation, they had initially hired a professional company to distribute the video, but cancelled it due to concerns about a &#8220;takeover. However, because of the recent cancellation, it appears that they paid the full quoted price. However, in reality, the specialist contractor is filming and distributing the video.</p>
<p> Although the company claims that these were volunteers, many people may have thought, &#8220;I&#8217;ve heard this story before. This is because the story is similar to the one involving Hyogo Governor Motohiko Saito and a PR firm that was alleged to have violated the Public Offices Election Law.</p>
<p> In response to the &#8220;Bunshun&#8221; report, Mr. Ishimaru held a hastily-called explanatory press conference on February 6.</p>
<p> At the press conference, Mr. Ishimaru apologized for the campaign&#8217;s deficiencies and said that he recognized the cancellation fee as an &#8220;equipment rental fee,&#8221; but the campaign&#8217;s secretary general, who presided over the meeting, announced that the person in charge had instructed the contractor to change the name on the invoice.</p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" The discrepancy between Mr. Ishimaru&#39;s and the secretary general&#39;s explanations can be found at ......"></div>
<h2>The interview can&#8217;t be aired uncut.</h2>
<p> The two men&#8217;s differing explanations were reported on the Internet as follows.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> &#8220;Didn&#8217;t they have a meeting before the press conference?</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> &#8220;Isn&#8217;t it terrible that the representative of the campaign is not able to communicate with the campaign staff?</span></p>
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<p> &#8220;Isn&#8217;t it terrible that the representative didn&#8217;t communicate with the campaign staff? At the press conference, Mr. Ishimaru corrected himself, but his initial statement was</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> I said it subjectively.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> &#8220;The assumption is that there was no malicious intent on the part of the vendor.</span></p>
<p> I had no malice toward the vendor,&#8221; he said, and something seemed off. It is understandable that some people might ask, &#8220;Is he all right?</p>
<p> At this press conference, Ishimaru again bit the media.</p>
<p> At the January 15 press conference for the launch of his new party, he complained to TV Asahi about the fact that they did not broadcast his interview in its entirety. He had also previously &#8220;banned&#8221; a TV station that had edited and broadcast his remarks, saying that he would not be interviewed in the future.</p>
<p> At that time, he said,</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> &#8220;TV stations must be in trouble.</span></p>
<p> At that time, he also said, &#8220;The TV stations will be troubled.</p>
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<p> What a surprise! It is not &#8220;documentary Shinji Ishimaru,&#8221; and anyone would understand that it is impossible to broadcast uncut footage of an interview in an information program with a fixed broadcast time. If they don&#8217;t want to do that, they shouldn&#8217;t have been interviewed in the first place.</p>
<p> I can assure you that the TV stations will not be troubled at all.</p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" The overused phrase &quot;revitalization and reform of Japan&quot;..."></div>
<h2>The &#8220;Punkotsu&#8221; political party</h2>
<p> And now, in the January 16 edition of Nikkan Gendai Digital</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> &#8220;It seems inevitable that we will become a &#8216;clunker&#8217; party.</span></p>
<p> He seemed to be dissatisfied with the article in the January 16 edition of &#8220;Nikkan Gendai Digital,&#8221; which said, &#8220;It is unlikely that we can avoid becoming a &#8216;clunker&#8217; party.</p>
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<p><span class="strongInContent"> Politicians are criticized in various ways. If you don&#8217;t like it, I hope you will have the guts to look back on it. He also said, &#8220;If the press is rife with bad words, nothing good will come of it,&#8221; but if you worry about every little thing like that, you can&#8217;t be a politician.</span></p>
<p> Rather than &#8220;clumsy,&#8221; he comes across as &#8220;childish.</p>
<p> Ishimaru has attracted attention as a &#8220;new wave politician&#8221; since his days as mayor of Akitakada City in Hiroshima Prefecture. In the Tokyo gubernatorial election, young people and independents were attracted by his freshness and voted for him, but he rarely talked about his policies in his campaign speeches.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> In his campaign speeches, however, he rarely talked about his policies. &#8220;In his press conferences and interviews, he talked about his desire to revitalize Japan by promoting reforms from the local level, but few people remember that,&#8221; said a TV news reporter.</span></p>
<p> (TV station reporter) &#8220;Young supporters of Ishimaru, who do not know his past, may find it refreshing to hear his new policies,</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> However, the &#8220;Japan revival and reform&#8221; that he is shouting about has been said by many politicians in the past, and it is a phrase that has been overused. We have been trying to revitalize Japan by creating regional political parties for decades. Many voters may wonder what they are saying now.</span></p>
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<p> At the press conference to launch the new party, the details of how the party would support the candidates were announced, but no specific policies or goals for the party were presented. In response to this, the Internet said</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> &#8220;This is not a political organization, but rather a mutual aid association for elections.</span></p>
<p> Some people ridiculed the party, saying, &#8220;This is not a political organization, but a mutual aid association for elections.</p>
<p> Will he be able to clear his name as &#8220;Punkotsu Ishimaru&#8221;?</p>


 Hiroyuki Sasaki (entertainment journalist)

 Takayuki Ogawauchi

 Shinji Ishimaru caused a stir in last year's Tokyo gubernatorial election, winning over 1.6 million votes, second only to incumbent Yuriko Koike. However, he was suspected of violating the Public Offices Election Law in that election, and ......

Shinji Ishimaru, &#8220;violating the Public Election Law,&#8221; held a press conference with TV Asahi and then Nikkan Gendai&#8230;still &#8220;biting&#8221; at the media.

Shinji Ishimaru, “violating the Public Election Law,” held a press conference with TV Asahi and then Nikkan Gendai…still “biting” at the media.

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