Anti-NHK Group Leader Tachibana Indicted for Defamation

From Jiji

November 28 2025

KOBE – The Kobe District Public Prosecutors Office on Friday indicted Takashi Tachibana, leader of a political group criticizing Japan Broadcasting Corp., or NHK, for defaming a former Hyogo prefectural assembly member who apparently committed suicide.
   Tachibana, 58, was arrested Nov. 9 for allegedly disseminating false information about the victim, Hideaki Takeuchi, then 50, who sat on the prefectural assembly’s special investigation committee on a scandal involving Governor Motohiko Saito.
   According to the indictment, Tachibana, who heads the group called NHK Party, said on Dec. 13 and 14 last year, during his mayoral election campaign in Osaka Prefecture, near Hyogo, that it was probably true that Takeuchi was under police investigation.
   In the two days following Takeuchi’s death on Jan. 18, Tachibana spread false information through speeches and social media that Takeuchi had been scheduled to be arrested soon.
   It is considered unusual for a trial in Japan to address posthumous libel. Proving defamation after death is difficult, as it requires demonstrating that the information was false. The focus of the trial will likely be whether Tachibana knew the information was false.