Japan Upper House to Consider Expelling GaaSyy

Tokyo, March 8 (Jiji Press)--Japanese lawmakers will consider expelling GaaSyy from the House of Councillors after the YouTuber did not appear before the upper chamber of parliament to apologize for his long absence Wednesday.

GaaSyy had been ordered by the Upper House to appear before the chamber Wednesday morning to make an apology as a penalty for his failure to attend even a single meeting since he won a seat in July last year.

Upper House President Hidehisa Otsuji said that GaaSyy's refusal to apologize disrupts order in the chamber and referred his case to its disciplinary committee again.

"We'll consider options including expelling (GaaSyy)," Hiroshige Seko, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's secretary-general for the Upper House, told reporters.

GaaSyy, whose real name is Yoshikazu Higashitani, is a member of the NHK Party, a minor single-issue party critical of public broadcaster NHK, or Japan Broadcasting Corp. He is now staying overseas.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]