Who is the Japanese YouTuber-turned-politician expelled from Parliament for ‘not going to work’?

Only months after being elected as an MP, a celebrity gossip YouTuber who thought he would try his hand at politics was booted from Japan's parliament. Known online as GaaSyy, Yoshikazu Higashitani’s eight-month political career came to an end on Tuesday when his coworkers voted to fire him for never once showing up for work, according to BBC. As per the report, he did not attend a single day of parliament sessions and now he has been nicknamed “No-Show MP.” Notably, since 1950, it has only happened twice, and this is the first instance in which an MP has been ousted for continuous absenteeism without ever appearing in the chamber, as per Dailymail. Who is Yoshikazu Higashitani? Yoshikazu Higashitani is one of two MPs elected from the Seijika Joshi 48 opposition group. The single-issue party advocates for the elimination of licence payments for the national broadcasting organisation NHK as part of its effort to reform Japan’s public broadcaster, reported Dailymail. According to the Asahi Shimbun newspaper, the party frequently changes its name for promotional purposes. Takashi Tachibana, the party’s leader, announced that in order to take ownership of the Higashitani-related problem, he intends to resign from his position. Despite having lost access to his YouTube channel, where he posted celebrity gossip, Higashitani still has more than 200,000 TikTok followers and 316,000 Instagram followers. Also read: ‘Japan will disappear’: The country’s declining population and the challenges to tackle the crisis explained Why was he expelled? The Japanese parliament’s discipline committee, which was composed of 10 of his peers from the Senate, decided to expel him from parliament due to his persistent absenteeism. Higashitani disobeyed requests from parliament to travel to Tokyo last week to apologise for his absences. Instead, the 51-year-old took to his social media handle and announced that he was in Turkey and would not return as he wanted to support earthquake relief efforts, as per Fortune.

The expulsion of Higashitani was approved by a unanimous vote of the parliamentary disciplinary committee, according to Muneo Suzuki, chair of the committee, who wrote about it in a blog post on Tuesday. “GaaSyy doesn’t understand the foundations of democracy, which is based on laws and rules,” he said in a separate statement published by The Japan Times. The committee’s decision to deprive Higashitani of his MP status—the harshest punishment a Japanese legislator may receive—will soon be made official in parliament. According to Jiji Press, Higashitani’s expulsion marks the first time a lawmaker has been dismissed for being absent from work and the first expulsion from parliament in 72 years. The Japan Times reports that Higashitani is thought to be in the Middle East and has stated he is unable to return to Japan because he worries about getting detained. He is currently under investigation by Tokyo police for allegedly intimidating and defaming celebrities in videos posted to his social media sites, local media reported. According to Japanese law, elected officials are free from arrest during parliamentary sessions; however, Higashitani will lose this protection once he is declared to have lost his position. The Japan Times reports that if he is formally dismissed this week, another party candidate will take his place. Reportedly, Hamada Satoshi is the only other party member who argued that Higashitani’s absence from meetings made it unconstitutional to remove him. Also read: Smells Fishy: What is ‘sushi terrorism’ that led to the arrest of 3 people in Japan? Other allegations against him According to Dailymail, GaaSyy is accused of defrauding multiple people out of money by promising to arrange meetings between them and the members of the well-known K-Pop band BTS. Higashitani was voluntarily questioned by Japanese police in December after they suspected him of extortion and slander in connection with his YouTube postings. In January, police additionally searched a number of places connected to Higashitani. The report says Higashitani received 18 million yen (~ Rs 11.30 million) in salary and bonuses while serving as an MP, according to the upper house. With inputs from agencies Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.