PM Takaichi’s Secretary Denies Creating Defamatory Videos

Tokyo, July 22 (Jiji Press)–The first state-paid secretary to Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said in a statement submitted to the chairman of the Budget Committee of the House of Representatives that he did not create or disseminate defamatory videos targeting Takaichi’s rivals in recent elections. The statement by the secretary, Tsuyoshi Kinoshita, aligns with Takaichi’s explanations about the alleged defamatory videos. Kinoshita said that he does not clearly remember a man who claimed to have been involved in making the defamatory videos, but admitted that he had an online meeting with the man. Still, Kinoshita stressed that he did not ask the man to create such videos during the meeting, noting that he probably heard about the man’s experience with social media strategy and discussed the situation of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s leadership election last year. Kinoshita also said that he cannot confirm whether an audio recording published online by the weekly magazine Shukan Bunshun is from the online meeting, and whether he had contact with the man before the Lower House election in February. Meanwhile, the secretary said he did not receive any explanation about the issuance of a virtual currency known as “Sanae Token,” which includes the prime minister’s first name. In response to the secretary’s written statement, Junya Ogawa, head of the opposition Centrist Reform Alliance, issued a statement saying that the scandal is far from over and calling for the secretary to appear before the Diet for questioning. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]