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PM Takaichi says smear video questions 'taking time' from official ... PM Takaichi says smear video questions ‘taking time’ from official duties Sign up now: Get insights on Asia's fast-moving developments Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has maintained she has had no knowledge of the videos. PHOTO: AFP Published Jun 22, 2026, 01:45 PM Updated Jun 22, 2026, 03:30 PM Listen TOKYO - Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said on June 22 that opposition questioning on allegations her office commissioned online smear videos of opponents is taking time away from her duties as premier, adding she wants to submit a statement from her secretary to Parliament. The remarks from Takaichi to Parliament came as she has faced repeated opposition scrutiny on the smear videos reports and calls for the publicly funded first secretary of her lawmaker’s office, who is alleged to have requested their creation, to appear before lawmakers. Takaichi has maintained she has had no knowledge of the videos, referring to her secretary’s denials of the reports that first emerged in weekly magazine Shukan Bunshun in late April. The magazine claimed that her office had an IT firm create anonymous videos attacking h…

Editorial: Japan PM Takaichi's evasion over alleged smear video scandal only deepens doubts Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's camp was allegedly involved in creating and spreading videos on social media to smear rival candidates during

Controversy Erupts Over Prime Minister Takaichi's Alleged Smear Video TOKYO- Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's administration is facing mounting scrutiny over allegations that members of her campaign were involved in distributing online videos that disparaged rival candidates during the February House of Representatives election, with opposition parties intensifying their questioning in the Diet and demanding further clarification. The controversy stems from reports published by Weekly Bunshun alleging that individuals linked to Takaichi's campaign circulated videos targeting political opponents on social media. The issue has attracted attention not simply as a political scandal but because of concerns that such activities could distort voter behavior and undermine the fairness of democratic elections. Takaichi's camp denied the allegations last month. The prime minister stated that neither she nor her secretaries had any prior relationship with the individual accused of producing the videos and said she trusted her staff members. The issue resurfaced after the magazine reported the existence of audio recordings allegedly capturing online conversations between one of Takaichi's …

World Insights: Escalating smear scandal raises questions over ... Source: Xinhua Editor: huaxia 2026-05-29 22:18:30 TOKYO, May 29 (Xinhua) -- A smear campaign scandal involving Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and her election team continues to unfold in the Asian country. On Thursday, when Michihiro Ishibashi, a lawmaker from the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, once again questioned Takaichi over the matter at a meeting in the House of Councillors, or the upper chamber of Japan's National Diet, the prime minister denied the allegations. According to earlier Japanese media reports, Takaichi's campaign team allegedly instructed private individuals to produce a large number of defamatory videos targeting rival candidates during last year's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) leadership race and the February House of Representatives election, and to covertly spread them across the internet and social media platforms. The revelations quickly drew widespread attention across Japanese society. Analysts pointed out that Takaichi has long used social media to drum up support for her political ambitions, with no shortage of past controversies behind her. The latest…

Editorial: Japan PM Takaichi's evasion over alleged smear video scandal ... Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, third from the left, halts questioning during the House of Representatives Budget Committee session while responding to Shinichi Isa of the Centrist Reform Alliance over a weekly magazine report, as Akira Nagatsuma of the same party, front right, confronts Budget Committee Chairperson Tetsushi Sakamoto, second from the right, at the National Diet Building in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward on June 4, 2026. (Mainichi/Akihiro Hirata) Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's camp was allegedly involved in creating and spreading videos on social media to smear rival candidates during last October's Liberal Democratic Party presidential race and this February's House of Representatives election, according to reports by the weekly magazine Shukan Bunshun. With her present approach of sidestepping the issue and evading questions over the matter, Takaichi cannot dispel these doubts. A man said to have been involved in the alleged smear campaign testified that he carried out the activities while communicating with the prime minister's publicly funded first secretary. He also revealed detailed me…

Takaichi's smear video scandal shows how Japan's digital campaign rules ... Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has been unable to shake off a scandal that emerged more than a month ago in a weekly magazine. Opposition lawmakers have continued to press her this week on the allegation that one of her secretaries was connected to an online smear campaign in recent elections. While the alleged scandal remains at the forefront of parliamentary deliberations, legislative action to regulate the use of online content for political influence is playing out in the background. The issue emerged when the Shukan Bunshun weekly published a story claiming that one of Takaichi’s secretaries met with an individual who participated in a smear campaign against rival candidates. This activity reportedly involved the distribution of hundreds of AI-generated videos from burner accounts on social media. The claim is that the individual used this content in an effort to influence last year’s Liberal Democratic Party presidential election and this year’s Lower House election, allegedly with the secretary’s knowledge. In a time of both misinformation and too much information,quality journalism is more crucia…

Japan PM faces backlash after saying smear video questions cut into work ... Source: Xinhua Editor: huaxia 2026-06-22 23:50:30 TOKYO, June 22 (Xinhua) -- Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said Monday that repeatedly responding to questioning over a smear campaign scandal involving her election team was cutting into her time for prime ministerial duties, a response that drew widespread criticism. Japan's weekly magazine Shukan Bunshun has recently published a series of reports, citing evidence including emails and audio recordings, alleging that Takaichi's campaign team instructed an IT firm to use artificial intelligence to create and spread defamatory videos attacking rival candidates during last year's ruling Liberal Democratic Party leadership race and the February general election. During a session of the House of Representatives Budget Committee on Monday, opposition Centrist Reform Alliance lawmaker Yuichi Goto pressed Takaichi on her camp's connection to the alleged activities. Rather than addressing the question directly, Takaichi said that having to respond to the allegations had made it increasingly difficult to secure sufficient time for her prime ministerial…

Takaichi's smear video evasiveness breeds a full-on political liability The Asahi Shimbun Opinion Vox Populi article Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a daily column that runs on Page 1 of The Asahi Shimbun. May 27, 2026 at 12:40 JST Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi answers questions from Hideya Sugio of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan about allegations of slander videos during a session of the Upper House Cabinet Committee on May 26. (The Asahi Shimbun) It is hard not to find this puzzling. What explains Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s failure to directly address allegations that her campaign posted defamatory videos targeting rival candidates on social media during elections? Her evasive posture in dealing with the allegations has become a political liability in its own right—and increasingly hard to ignore. The controversy began with a report in late April in the weekly magazine Shukan Bunshun. The magazine published the account of a man who claims he exchanged messages with one of Takaichi’s aides during both the February Lower House election and the Liberal Democratic Party’s 2025 leadership race, and that videos intended to smear her rivals were produced as a result.…