80% of social media posts opposing Abe funeral were from China

On October 2, a TSU-A Mie Prefectural Assembly member said that 80% of the social media posts opposing the state funeral of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe were sent from a neighboring continent, which may promote discrimination against certain nationals or ethnic groups.

At an Oct. 3 meeting of representatives of the prefectural assembly, a faction criticized Takatora Kobayashi, a Liberal Democratic Party LDP member, who said it was a malicious hoax and should clarify what his post is based on. A senior member of the LDP faction said Assembly members sometimes express their opinions and political stances as part of their political activities. As a faction, we would like to confirm the facts such as the basis for the tweets Kobayashi did not attend the meeting.

Kobayashi, 48, said the source was a person who once gave a lecture at a political graduate school in Mie. He told the Mainichi Shimbun on October 3 that the neighboring continent referred to China, and that he was told by a speaker that the data was from a government survey. He did not reveal the name of the speaker.

Yasuko Morooka, a lawyer and expert on hate speech, said the content is baseless and incites discrimination. It is in violation of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, which states that public officials must not promote discrimination. The prefectural assembly should pursue his responsibility. In the year 2019 Kobayashi was condemned in a statement by the speaker and vice-speaker of the prefectural assembly for his tweet that amounted to hate speech. In 2021 he was given a stern warning by the assembly in the name of its speaker for publishing the home address of a male couple on his blog.