Japan Restoration Party Rehires Secretary Arrested for Attempted Murder!

Mr. A, a man in his 30s, has been employed by the Japan Restoration Association as a public relations staff member since this spring. He was arrested about a year ago on suspicion of attempted murder. He was originally the first public secretary of Ms. Mizuho Umemura, 43, a member of the House of Councilors ” said a member of the Restoration Association.

Mr. A committed the incident in April 2021. On a street in Sakai City, Osaka Prefecture, he crashed into a male acquaintance in a passenger car he was driving, got out of the car, and assaulted him, punching him in the face. He was then arrested by the Osaka Prefectural Police on suspicion of attempted murder.

“The Osaka District Public Prosecutor’s Office later decided to drop the charges after changing the name of the crime to assault. However, public secretaries are paid from taxpayer funds, and Umemura held a press conference to apologize. Of course, he was dismissed as a secretary,” said a reporter from a national newspaper.

When we contacted the party headquarters of the Japan Restoration Association, Mr. A himself answered the phone but responded, “I cannot answer your questions.” When I contacted the party headquarters for an interview, the response was, “The charges have been dropped, the settlement has been completed, and he has expressed remorse, and we hired him based on his work experience.” But why did they hire him as a party official only one year after the incident?

The truth is, Mr. A is the son-in-law of a powerful prefectural assembly member. The prefectural assemblyman is a figure that even the mayor of Osaka, Ichiro Matsui, is not too fond of. It is said that this is why he was hired back as a party official.

Yuji Yoshitomi, a journalist familiar with Osaka’s prefectural and municipal politics, said, “The Restoration Association is a group that has been active in the Osaka prefectural and municipal governments for many years.”

The Japan Restoration Party is pursuing the public servants of the Osaka prefectural and municipal governments, so by definition they must discipline themselves even more strictly than they do. They claim to be a ‘party without ties,’ but I think they have become a party full of ties.

The party’s insight as a national political party is now being questioned.

From the June 24 and July 1, 2022 issues of FRIDAY