Tokyo pension office head replaced over hate speech tweets, some targeting South Koreans

The head of a Tokyo pension office who repeatedly tweeted discriminatory remarks against individuals including South Koreans was replaced Monday.

The governmental Japan Pension Service and sources said that in the now deleted tweets Yukihisa Kasai called South Koreans “cowardly people with vassal-like spirits” and said, “Korean residents should be purged from Japan and new entries refused.”

Kasai, who headed the Japan Pension Service branch office in Setagaya Ward, also described Japanese opposition lawmakers as “a group of extortionists who get money for just being there.”

Kasai admitted to writing the messages after he was pinned him down as the originator of the tweets, according to the Japan Pension Service, which effectively dismissed him by transferring him to its human resource division, administered by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry.

Less than a week earlier, a director of the ministry was dismissed after allegedly assaulting an airport worker in Seoul and telling the worker he hates South Koreans.

The director, who was on a personal trip, was under the influence of alcohol and temporarily detained March 19, South Korean police said.

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