Japan Upper House to Consider Expelling GaaSyy

Jiji Press

16:42 JST, March 8, 2023

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — Japanese lawmakers will consider expelling GaaSyy from the House of Councillors after the YouTuber did not appear before the upper chamber of parliament to apologize for his long absence Wednesday.

GaaSyy had been ordered by the Upper House to appear before the chamber Wednesday morning to make an apology as a penalty for his failure to attend even a single meeting since he won a seat in July last year.

Upper House President Hidehisa Otsuji said GaaSyy’s refusal to apologize disrupts order in the chamber and referred his case to its disciplinary committee again.

GaaSyy, whose real name is Yoshikazu Higashitani, is a member of the NHK Party, a minor single-issue party critical of public broadcaster NHK, or Japan Broadcasting Corp. He is now staying overseas.

GaaSyy, who previously said that he would make an apology before the Upper House, said on social media Tuesday that it was too early for him to return to Japan.

The parliament law sets four types of penalties for lawmakers—expulsion, suspension of attendance for a certain period, apology in an open plenary sitting and admonition in an open plenary sitting in order of most to least severe.