Japan Upper House Head Issues Letter Urging GaaSyy to Attend Diet

Tokyo, Jan. 30 (Jiji Press)--The head of Japan's House of Councillors on Monday issued a letter seeking attendance at the Diet, the country's parliament, by YouTuber lawmaker GaaSyy, who has been absent from the Diet since winning a seat on the Upper House in the July 2022 election.

It is the first time in 74 years that a letter requesting a lawmaker in the Upper House to attend the Diet has been issued by the chamber's head.

As such a letter has never been issued by the speaker of the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the Diet, Monday's written request marked the second time the measure has been used. In the first case, in 1949, then Upper House President Tsuneo Matsudaira issued, during a special parliamentary session, such letters to four lawmakers who had been absent from the Diet.

GaaSyy, a member of the NHK Party, a single-issue party critical of NHK, the public broadcaster officially called Japan Broadcasting Corp., is currently in the United Arab Emirates. He has not attended a single parliamentary meeting since he secured a Diet seat for the first time in the 2022 election.

On Monday, Upper House President Hidehisa Otsuji handed the letter addressed to GaaSyy to Satoshi Hamada, another Upper House lawmaker from the NHK Party. The Diet is now in a regular session that started Jan. 23.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]