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The Collaborative Party (Japanese: みんなでつくる党, Min'na de tsukuru tō, lit.'A party created by everyone'), abbreviated as Mintsuku (みんつく) and commonly referred to by its former name NHK Party (NHK党),[9][10] is a populist[2] and right-wing[6]political party in Japan founded in 2013 by activist Takashi Tachibana, who led the party until stepping down in March 2023[11] and becoming the disputed leader again a month later, in April 2023.[12] The party's original goal was to oppose the license fees for the national broadcasting organization NHK, revising the 1950 Broadcasting Law [ja] to scramble NHK's broadcast signal, which would mean that only those who watch NHK pay for it. The party's policies have since expanded to cover other issues, including lower taxes, increasing military defense capability, and reaching energy independence through nuclear energy.[13]
The party has been referred to by some commentators and political scientists as a fringe or joke party, despite having seen occasional success in national elections.[14][15] Its candidates and officeholders, who are often YouTubers or other Internet celebrities, have been frequent sources of controversy.[16][17] The party changed its name several times, with its most recent change in November 2023.[18]
The party is currently in a leadership dispute between Tachibana and Ayaka Otsu since April 2023. As of April 2024, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications recognizes Otsu as the sole leader of the party.[19][20] Despite this, most of the party defected and switched allegiance to Tachibana, resulting in a deadlock where Otsu is the de jure leader while Tachibana is the de facto leader.[21] The party's status as a national political party was revoked in January 2024 after the party lost all of its seats in the National Diet after the Otsu wing leadership expelled both members of the House of Councillors for aligning with Tachibana. However, the two still refer to themselves as members of the party through the parliamentary group with the same name as the party.[22] Bankruptcy proceedings commenced on the party on 14 March 2024.[23][24]
History
Old party logo as the NHK Party, also the current logo under the Tachibana faction
As the NHK Party
The founder of the party, Takashi Tachibana, is a former employee of Japan's national public broadcasting organization NHK. He resigned from his position in the accounting department at NHK after having leaked internal corruption to weekly magazine Shūkan Bunshun in 2005. In 2012, he founded the "Tachibana one-man broadcasting station", a YouTube channel that vowed to fight against NHK.[25] In 2013, this evolved into The Party to Protect the People from NHK. Tachibana used YouTube to bypass the mass media, which would not cover his activism. Over the years, he used YouTube to gain multiple local council seats. In 2019, the party won its first seat in the National Diet in the 2019 House of Councillors election.[25] The party also gained a seat in the House of Representatives when Hodaka Maruyama joined the party on 29 July 2019.[25]
The party mainly exists to counter alleged bad behaviour by NHK license fee money collectors,[26][27] who Tachibana claims have connections to the yakuza.[25] The party issues a special sticker that would allegedly protect citizen's properties and residences from these collectors and has a call center to assist people in avoid paying the license fee.[25] While it is required by law to make a contract with NHK and pay if one owns a device capable of receiving the NHK signal (for example, a regular TV), the law does not impose any punishment for nonpayment of the license fee.[25] Lacking a means of criminal prosecution, Tachibana claims that NHK has resorted to using debt collectors to pressure people for payment.
The rise of the party is described as part of rising distrust of the mass media in Japan by researcher Max Guerrera-Sapone.[25]
YouTuber Yoshikazu Higashitani, known as his YouTube alias GaaSyy, was elected in the 2022 House of Councillors election, expanding the party's seats in the upper house to 2. Higashitani was expelled 8 months later in March 2023 for not attending any sessions, reputedly due to his fear of being arrested on grounds of alleged fraud and defamation against celebrities if he were to visit Japan, as he was residing in the United Arab Emirates for the entirety of his term.[28] Due to this, Tachibana would resign as the party's leader at a press conference, where he announced former child actress Ayaka Otsu as his successor, and the rebranding of the party to Seijika Joshi 48 tō(政治家女子48党, Politician Girls 48 Party).[29]
A month later on 7 April 2023, Tachibana held a press conference and announced that Otsu had been expelled from the party on the previous day, stating that Otsu "posed a risk of dissolving the party." Tachibana then announced that he would return to the position of party leader. In response, Otsu held her own press conference, denying her resignation which split the party between the Otsu wing and the Tachibana wing.[30][31]
As The Collaborative Party
On 6 November 2023, Otsu held a press conference and announced the change of the party's name to "The Collaborative Party" (みんなでつくる党).
Bankruptcy proceedings soon commenced on the party on 14 March 2024.[23][24]
Party name history
The party was formed as the NHK License Fee Non-Payment Party (NHK受信料不払い党, NHK jushinryō fubarai tō) on 17 June 2013, but changed its name a month later on 23 July 2013 to The Party to Protect the People from NHK (NHKから国民を守る党, NHK kara kokumin o mamoru tō), commonly shortened to N-Koku Party (N国党) or just N-Koku.
Its name was again changed in January 2021 to The Party to Protect our People from NHK (NHKから自国民を守る党, NHK kara jikokumin o mamoru tō), officially abbreviated to NHK Party (NHK党). This change, the addition of the character 自 (ji, our) before 国民 (kokumin, people/citizen) did not alter the meaning of the party's name, but was intended to allow the party to use the official abbreviation Jimintō (自民党), that of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.[32] This was rejected by the Internal Affairs Ministry, however, and so the abbreviation was instead changed to "NHK Party".[33] The party's official website used the English name "The Party to Protect Citizens from NHK",[34] but the English-speaking press has preferred the translation "The Party to Protect the People from NHK".
The party again changed its name to The Party that Teaches How to Not Pay the NHK License Fee (NHK受信料を支払わない方法を教える党, NHK jushinryō o shiharawanai hōhō o oshieru tō) on 5 February 2021, and announced that it intended to keep changing its name in future, while maintaining the "NHK Party" short form as the party's common name.[35][36]
On 25 April 2022, the party again changed its name to NHK Party (NHK党), with its self-abbreviation being "NHK".
On 8 March 2023, it was announced that the party would rebrand as Seijika Joshi 48 Party (政治家女子48党).[37] In the ensuing leadership dispute between Tachibana and Otsu, the Tachibana wing attempted to change the party's name to The Party to Protect the People from NHK (NHKから国民を守る党), but was rejected by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC).[38] On 6 November 2023, the Otsu-wing announced the rebranding of the party to The Collaborative Party (みんなでつくる党). The changed was approved by the MIC.[39]
Name
Period
Duration
Start
End
NHK受信料不払い党 NHK License Fee Nonpayment Party
2013-06-17
2013-07-23
36 days
NHKから国民を守る党 The Party to Protect the People from NHK
2013-07-23
2020-12-21
7 years, 151 days
NHKから自国民を守る党 The Party to Protect our People from NHK
2020-12-21
2021-02-05
46 days
NHK受信料を支払わない方法を教える党 The Party That Teaches How to Not Pay the NHK License Fee
2021-02-05
2021-05-17
101 days
古い政党から国民を守る党[40][41] The Party to Protect People from Old Political Parties[42]
2021-05-17
2021-06-28
42 days
嵐の党 Storm Party
2021-06-28
2021-07-21
23 days
NHKと裁判してる党弁護士法72条違反で The party fighting against NHK in the trial for violating Article 72 of the Attorney Act[43]
2021-07-21
2022-01-20
183 days
NHK受信料を支払わない国民を守る党 The party that protects those who do not pay the NHK license fee
「本当にNHKから守る必要があるのか」N国の立花代表が会見 [Do they really need to protect people from NHK? Press conference asked the leader]. The Page (in Japanese). 2 August 2019 – via YouTube.
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