Man Pleads Guilty to Attack on Anti-NHK Group Leader

Tokyo, Oct. 2 (Jiji Press)--A 32-year-old man pleaded guilty in Tokyo District Court on Friday to attempted murder and other charges related to the March 2025 attack on Takashi Tachibana, head of a political group criticizing NHK, also known as Japan Broadcasting Corp., in central Tokyo.

During the first hearing of his lay-judge trial, Shion Miyanishi admitted to all charges.

According to the indictment, Miyanishi cut Tachibana's head with a 16-centimeter machete on a sidewalk outside the industry ministry in Tokyo's Kasumigaseki district on March 14 last year. Tachibana, who was campaigning for a gubernatorial election in Chiba Prefecture, east of Tokyo, at the time, suffered injuries that would take three weeks to heal.

In its opening statement, the prosecution said that Miyanishi was motivated by a media report that Tachibana allegedly drove a former assembly member of the western prefecture of Hyogo into suicide.

The defense said that Miyanishi believed he had to correct evil because he felt responsible for voting for Tachibana in a past election.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]