Japan Upper House to Expel Absentee GaaSyy

Tokyo, March 8 (Jiji Press)--Japan's ruling and opposition camps plan to expel GaaSyy from the House of Councillors after the YouTuber lawmaker did not appear before the upper chamber of parliament to apologize for his long absence Wednesday.

GaaSyy, whose real name is Yoshikazu Higashitani, had been ordered by the Upper House to appear before the chamber Wednesday 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.

The upper chamber will make the decision at a plenary meeting to be held as early as March 15.

GaaSyy's refusal to show up "has disrupted order in the chamber," Upper House President Hidehisa Otsuji said, referring the case to the Discipline Committee again. The committee decided to meet on Tuesday to discuss the matter.

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

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]