What did he spend it on? Ayaka Otsu also shook her head at the 1.2 billion yen debt of Takashi Tachibana, the defendant, behind the announcement of his “personal bankruptcy.

NHK Party is 230 million yen in debt

The defendant Takashi Tachibana, 58, of the political organization “NHK Party” which announced its dormancy, announced that it had filed for bankruptcy.

On March 11, Tachibana updated his website, stating

Today, at 17:00, March 11, Reiwa 2026, Takashi Tachibana was ordered to commence bankruptcy proceedings based on his petition for personal bankruptcy, and Yoshihiko Itabashi, attorney-at-law, was appointed as his trustee in bankruptcy.

The report said. According to the defendant, 240 individual creditors had reported 1,244 million yen.

Tachibana defendant’s own assets are around 15 million yen, and he will go bankrupt because he will have no funds to pay dividends due to income tax payments.

In parallel with the Tachibana defendant, the party also has 160 creditors and a total debt of 230 million yen. The party’s assets are 23 million yen, and they plan to mail a proposal in writing to those with claims of 100,000 yen or less to return the full amount, and to those with claims of 100,000 to 1 million yen to pay 10% of their claims plus 100,000 yen.

Tachibana was arrested and indicted last November for defamation against a former Hyogo Prefectural Assembly member, and has remained in detention.

In December of last year, Tachibana revealed that he personally owed more than 500 million yen, but this time the debt is 1.2 billion yen, more than double the amount he owed. In his YouTube video released on March 12, he said

I’m amazed that you were able to collect the money. Debt is about a person’s ability to collect and their trustworthiness, so you have to respect that,” he said.

On the other hand

I wonder if the NHK party, which has become a national political party, needed to borrow that much money. I honestly don’t understand why this money was necessary, given the large amount of political party subsidies that the party receives. I would like to hear Takashi Tachibana’s own explanation.

He said.

In November 2007, he borrowed about 500 million yen from an unspecified number of supporters at the rate of 1 million yen per unit and an annual interest rate of 5%, and in 2009 he borrowed about 800 million yen under the same conditions. The huge amount of money had long been depleted by the party’s publicity and election expenses, but there are doubts as to whether all of the money was used in a proper manner.

Charges of Fraud of Concern

On March 12, Ayaka Otsu, 33, a representative of the Minna-Tsukuru Party (Minna-Tsukuru Party), which parted company with defendant Tachibana, wrote in her X

A simple question is, what did you spend the money on?　Where is the money now?

and post. Defendant Tachibana has imposed debts in the hundreds of millions on the “Minzoku Party,” the predecessor of the NHK Party, and the party is undergoing bankruptcy proceedings one step ahead of defendant Tachibana.

In a subsequent post, Mr. Otsu wrote

[From now on, the structure will be such that both Minthoku Party and Mr. Tachibana will have creditors in common. The reason why Mr. Tachibana has called himself responsible for the debt belonging to the Minthoku Party is that he may be trying to liquidate (or clear) the debt by admitting that it was a problematic loan and that he is responsible for it.

The company is suspicious of the Tachibana’s unaccounted-for money.

Regarding Tachibana’s unaccounted-for money, the aforementioned representative Otsu filed a criminal complaint against the defendant with the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department last May, accusing him of embezzlement in the course of his duties, and the complaint was accepted. If bankruptcy proceedings are filed, the flow of Tachibana’s money may be revealed under the legal process.

In response to an interview with this website, a person who knows Tachibana said, “If he goes bankrupt, he will be able to use his money under the law,

A source who knows Tachibana told this website, “If he files for bankruptcy, his use of the money will be revealed under the law, but it will take quite some time before that happens. At the same time, we are proposing a settlement for the party’s debts because a settlement would silence the voices saying, ‘Isn’t this a scam? Even if it is 100,000 yen, or even one-tenth of a million yen, they are tapping into the psychology of wanting to get it back rather than be bankrupted. If a problem is discovered in the use of the loan and the creditor accuses Tachibana of fraud, it could have a negative impact on his own upcoming trial. This may have been what Tachibana feared.

Tachibana said. In his statement, Tachibana said

Our battle with NHK has not yet come to an end. Takashi Tachibana and other party officials will continue to work as hard as possible to realize the scrambling of NHK.

But how many people, except for a few enthusiastic supporters, will believe his words?