Police in Tokyo have arrested eight people and issued 22 warnings over offenses related to Sunday’s Tokyo gubernatorial election and the by-election for Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly members.
According to the Metropolitan Police Department, in the previous 2020 Tokyo gubernatorial election, there was only one arrest.
Five of the eight people arrested were suspected of violating the Public Offices Election Act by damaging posters, and three were suspected of assault, Sankei Shimbun reported. One of the three was accused of assaulting a man who was filming people removing a poster.
In addition to violations such as distributing documents other than election flyers and defacing posters of candidates, warnings were issued for plastering obscene posters on campaign boards.
Police also issued a warning after posted an advertisement for an adult entertainment shop in the frame of a bulletin board "sold" by the Party to Protect the People from NHK.
© Japan Today
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Speed
This has been going on for over about a month. Why the arrests and warnings the day after the election?
Moonraker
It's a bit funny. Maybe the culmination of the inanity of an election. I can't lie, I always wanted to put up a poster of Mickey Mouse or Kitty-chan in one of the spaces.
dagon
The police move extremely swiftly with arrests related to electioneering and political campaigns.
I seem to recall many stories recently of crimes related to campaigns, especially with unreported monies, but arrests seem to have not been swift in coming.
Curious.
Alan Bogglesworth
Because now Koike has won, there is no chance of accusing here of being anti-democratic :)
smithinjapan
They should arrest the politicians for all the noise pollution and unnecessary spending they create. Plus they are the biggest obstructors of business (and sleep) with the election cars and incessant screaming over loudspeakers.
"Police also issued a warning after posted an advertisement for an adult entertainment shop in the frame of a bulletin board "sold" by the Party to Protect the People from NHK."
Sorry, but I think this is great, and I hope people keep doing it. NO ONE needs those posters, which are a major eyesore and cost a lot of money to print and post. It makes it more fun, and actually brings more attention to the legitimate posters as well. I know this is a little different, but take for example the case of the weirdos a few weeks back who were pulling stunts at a stump speech by some LDP politician. Before they did that, I had never seen nor heard of her at all. Once they did it, she was on the national news pretty much every day for days, and several times a day at that. It gave her free advertising, coverage, and brought attention to the issues she was presenting. What she SHOULD have done instead of going "deer in headlights" and then asking them to stop, was stopped her speech, laughed, posed with them for pics, and then moved on (possibly even asking them to join in on the rest of her speech). Would make the politicians look far less hypocritical, make them look more fun, and as I said bring more attention to both themselves and the election as a whole.
justasking
It’s all about arrest/conviction points and promotion. If they arrest without conviction, they lose points.
proxy
Requiring voters to produce ID secures democracy in Japan. The very small number of offences in Japan is a positive sign that democracy is not being undermined by cheaters.