A Japanese YouTuber-turned-lawmaker failed Wednesday to meet an upper house demand that he apologize for not attending any parliamentary sessions since being elected last year, a decision that will likely cost him his seat in the chamber.
The House of Councillors had ordered GaaSyy, whose real name is Yoshikazu Higashitani, to offer an apology in the Diet, but he did not return to Japan from abroad to participate in a plenary session.
During the session, Hidehisa Otsuji, president of the upper house, said he will bring up GaaSyy's behavior at the disciplinary committee again, as he has "disturbed the order" of business in parliament. The chamber is expected to formally decide what to do about him next Wednesday.
GaaSyy, a member of the NHK Party, a single-issue party critical of Japan's public broadcaster, is set to be expelled from parliament -- the most serious reprimand of four levels under the national Diet law, lawmakers said.
Later Wednesday, officials from both ruling and opposition parties said they will call on the upper house to deprive GaaSyy of his seat.
Meanwhile, Takashi Tachibana, the head of the NHK Party, voiced his intention to step down as leader of the small political group to take responsibility for the confusion surrounding GaaSyy.
GaaSyy is the first member of parliament to be reprimanded for being absent from sessions and would be the first to be expelled since 1951, the upper and lower chambers said.
On his Instagram account, GaaSyy said he is visiting quake-hit Turkey from the United Arab Emirates, where he has lived since before the upper house election in 2022, in which he won his seat.
Under Japan's Constitution, parliamentary members are "exempt from apprehension while the Diet is in session," but GaaSyy has claimed that he has remained overseas for fear of being "maliciously detained" due to a "false criminal complaint."
Ahead of the upper house election in July last year, GaaSyy came into the public eye for posting about gossip and allegations of scandals involving celebrities on his YouTube channel.
He was elected to the Diet under the proportional representation system, in which seats are distributed in accordance with the total votes cast for each political party and its candidates.
GaaSyy, who ranked top in the NHK Party's candidate list, is alleged to have swindled money from multiple people by telling them that he would give them an opportunity to meet members of the popular K-pop boy band BTS.
In December, Japanese police asked GaaSyy to undergo voluntary questioning on suspicion of defamation and extortion in connection with his YouTube posts, according to investigative sources.
The police searched several locations linked to him over the allegations in January.
The upper house decided last month to order GaaSyy to offer an apology in parliament, the third-most severe reprimand. Initially, he expressed readiness to return to Japan to obey the decision.
Instead of returning, GaaSyy submitted a video apology to the upper house, but the chamber refused to accept it.
GaaSyy has received around 18 million yen ($130,000) in salary and bonuses since being elected to parliament, the upper house said.
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YouTuber-turned-lawmaker ordered to apologize for not attending Diet
