A court on Wednesday convicted a former company president for recruiting people in 2020 to forge the signatures required for a referendum to recall Aichi Gov. Hideaki Omura, saying the accused "made light of democracy."
The Nagoya District Court sentenced Akira Yamaguchi, 39, the former head of an advertising company in Nagoya, to 16 months in prison, suspended for four years. The ruling said he committed "a vicious crime that diminishes the basis of a direct democratic system and local autonomy."
According to the verdict, Yamaguchi conspired with former Aichi prefectural assembly member Takahiro Tanaka, 60, and his son Masato Tanaka, 29, to have three part-time workers write fraudulent signatures of 71 voters in Saga Prefecture, in October 2020.