Trouble Ahead! Exclusive Access to “Election Violation Evidence” Photos of House of Representatives Member Hirotaka Ishihara

On October 30, the last day of the election campaign, Mr. Kishida, who had traveled all over the country, chose a place in front of JR Oimachi Station in Shinagawa Ward, Tokyo, as his last stop for the microphone.

He said, “From the prime minister and the president of the Liberal Democratic Party, Fumio Kishida, I sincerely hope that you will do whatever you can to push up Hirotaka Ishihara in Tokyo’s third ward.

After about 10 minutes of passionate speeches on the street car, Mr. Kishida grabbed Mr. Hirotaka’s left hand and held it high in the air.

Hirotaka, who was supported by Kishida, lost the primary election to an opposition candidate, but managed to secure a seat through a proportional resurgence. On top of that, he made an unthinkable mistake in setting up the venue for the town hall speech where he welcomed Mr. Kishida,” said a reporter from the political section of a national newspaper.

The above photo (1) is evidence of that mistake. In the photo (1) above, Hirotaka is wearing a red blouson on the street car in the center. To his right is Mr. Kishida in a suit. The problem is Hirotaka’s “banner” on the left of the photo.

According to Article 164, Section 2 of the Public Offices Election Law, when a banner or signboard with a candidate’s name or photo is displayed at a street speech site in a House of Representatives election, it must be attached to a signboard distributed by the local election office. It is only by attaching the certificate that a candidate’s name can be recognized. (Professor Emeritus Motonobu Iwai of Nihon University, an expert on the Public Election Law)

This time, the Tokyo Metropolitan Election Commission prepared a green plastic identification card in the shape of a right-angled isosceles triangle with a diagonal side of about 20 centimeters (Photo 2).

Photo (3) is a picture of the same place before the speech in Photo (1) was made. It can be confirmed that the placed banners do not have such a proof table.

This is a very detailed rule, but it is the first part of campaigning, and it is something you need to know if you are going to run for office. There are penalties for violating them, and this case is clearly illegal.

During the election, Hirotaka’s campaign has had other troubles as well.

Photo (4) shows a signboard indicating the location of the election office, which was tied to a guardrail, a public object.

After a while, we received a warning from the Shinagawa Ward Election Bureau, which saw the problem of the signboard being tied to a public object, and we had to re-install it (Photo 5).

In addition, the vehicle of one of the staff members who rushed to the site to re-install the signs was illegally parked and was cited by a police officer (Photo 6).

It was a very uncomfortable campaign for Hirotaka’s campaign, but it seems that there were some circumstances as follows.

During the campaign, Hirotaka’s morale was not high. His father, Shintaro Ishihara, the former governor of Tokyo, was suffering from stomach cancer and was undergoing hydrogen inhalation treatment at home, and his condition was quite bad at the time. Hirotaka said, ‘I don’t have time for elections. I’m busy with my inheritance,’ he leaked.

Perhaps due to the lack of motivation of the candidate himself, there was some confusion during the election campaign when Mr. Y, his policy secretary who was supposed to be his right-hand man and support, resigned (Hirotaka’s office responded that the banner displayed at the street speech site was “a campaign in compliance with the law. As for Mr. Y’s resignation, the office replied, “We don’t answer questions about personnel matters.)

For Hirotaka, who was defeated in the primary election, this election campaign was a disaster in the making. In December last year, Hirotaka made the decision to leave the Ishihara Faction, of which his brother Nobuteru was the chairman, and join the Hiroike-kai, led by Kishida.

In fact, Hirotaka was refused membership once by a Hiroike-kai official. In fact, Hirotaka was refused membership once by a Hiroike-kai official, who said he was ‘too manipulative,’ as he had announced his intention to resign as faction president after Shinsaku’s unsuccessful bid. It is said that he was chided, saying, ‘You are being too manipulative, and it is not good for Mr. Hirotaka.

However, Mr. Hirotaka had a reason to move to the President’s faction even if he had to force it. However, Hirotaka had a reason to move to the President’s faction, even if he had to force it. That reason was to review the redistricting of House of Representatives constituencies to correct the “one-vote disparity. Hirotaka’s constituency, Tokyo’s 3rd district, has a disparity of more than two times, which is considered to be “unconstitutional” or “in an unconstitutional state”, and it is highly probable that the district will be divided and reorganized in the future.

Hirotaka has told people around him that he would like to run in a different constituency from that of Jin Matsubara (who lost in the general election last October) in the next lower house election. He told people around him that he wanted to run in a different constituency from that of Hitoshi Matsubara (who lost the general election last October).

The faction that met Hirotaka’s expectations was the President’s faction, the Koike Kai.

For Kishida, however, his warmth toward the Ishihara brand did not necessarily lead to good results. It is still fresh in his mind that as soon as he appointed the unsuccessful Nobuteru as a cabinet minister, it came to light that Nobuteru’s political organization had received subsidies related to Covid-19, and he resigned. There is no guarantee that Hirotaka, who has joined the Konoike Group, will not become a “god of plague” that will depress the strong approval ratings of the Kishida Cabinet.