[Full Text Published] “You’re No Longer Needed”… Taro Yamamoto’s Former Private Secretary Speaks Out About “The Verbal Abuse I Endured” Using Her Real Name and Showing Her Face!

The result of my desperate efforts was…

“It was on the evening of December 15 of last year, during a three-way meeting between Representative Yamamoto, the party’s chief accountant, and myself. Back in October, the chief accountant had unilaterally informed me of a change to my employment terms.Since this change would reduce my annual income by about 2 million yen, I refused to accept the terms, which led to a meeting at Representative Yamamoto’s office.

After hearing the report from the finance director, Representative Yamamoto must have thought I was being selfish. He hurled these abusive remarks at me: ‘You’re a dead weight. I took you on because you were useless,’ and ‘If I could get paid without working, I’d trade places with you.’”

These are the words of Yuma Watanabe (24), who served as a private secretary to former Reiwa Shinsengumi (now the Party for Life) leader Taro Yamamoto (51). This time, he is coming forward with his real name and face, saying, “I want people to know the true face of Representative Yamamoto.”

In July of this year, Yamamoto announced his resignation as leader of Reiwa and his retirement from politics, citing a speeding violation while driving a rental car and health issues. However, troubles from his time as leader—such as the issue regarding his secretary’s salary—still linger, and he remains an influential figure. Watanabe continues:

“Representative Yamamoto called me ‘Watanabe-kun,’ and I worked as hard as I could—arranging accommodations and train tickets, and even doing his laundry while on business trips.”

A native of the Tohoku region, Watanabe was forced to relocate to another prefecture after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident when he was in the third grade of elementary school. He resonated with Yamamoto, who advocates for the phase-out of nuclear power. Since his father had run for the House of Representatives as a Reiwa candidate, Watanabe was hired as a party staff member in May 2022 and became Yamamoto’s private secretary in December of the same year.

Keeping the audience waiting so he could smoke

As I went about my work, I began to wonder about the behavior of Mr. Yamamoto, a heavy smoker.

“Representative Yamamoto liked to smoke ‘Natural American Spirit.’ He would even take a smoke break before a speech. For example, suppose he arrived at the speech venue 10 minutes before the start. Even though he could have gotten right on the campaign truck and started on time, it was common for him to run 10 minutes late just to smoke.

He’d go off to smoke, keeping the audience—who had gathered specifically to hear him speak—waiting…
What’s more, perhaps because he didn’t want anyone to know he was late because of smoking, he would deliberately smoke in a remote spot, which caused the start time to be delayed even further. If I hadn’t found a smoking area in advance, I’d get scolded: ‘You should’ve checked that properly.’ It was an atmosphere where no rebuttal was tolerated.”

There were also suspicions of staged events.

“It happened last July during a visit to a farm in Shimonoseki City, Yamaguchi Prefecture. There were only six or seven staff members there, including myself. Yet Representative Yamamoto had the cameras film him walking about 100 meters while smiling and waving.Even though there was no one around, he acted as if he were responding to waves from a large crowd of farmers’ supporters… I suppose he thought that even if it was ‘staged,’ it would serve as good publicity for the people working on farms.”

Let’s return to the beginning—the scene where Mr. Watanabe objected to the sudden contract change and a three-way meeting was held.

“Even when I asked for the reason behind the change, there was no clear explanation. The meeting lasted about 30 minutes, but we were at an impasse. Chairman Yamamoto, who had called me ‘useless,’ ended the meeting by saying, ‘That’s enough.’ I felt a sense of emptiness, thinking about how I had worked so hard for three years, and I submitted my resignation this past January.”

We left a message on Mr. Yamamoto’s cell phone to verify whether Mr. Watanabe’s account was accurate and also contacted his support group, “Taro’s NETWORK,” but received no response by the deadline. Ryo Takaya, a former Reiwa Party member of the House of Representatives, comments:

“He won the election in July 2013 by garnering over 660,000 votes in the House of Councillors election, and as the party continued to grow, he became arrogant—I feel he changed from that point on. He began insisting on his own opinions and distancing himself from people like me who offered harsh criticism. He surrounded himself with yes-men and became the emperor with no clothes.”

How will Mr. Watanabe’s words resonate with Mr. Yamamoto?

From the October 23–30, 2026, combined issue of *FRIDAY*