Former Upper House member and YouTuber GaaSyy, who was arrested after returning to Japan from Dubai on Sunday, was essentially pressured to come back after Japanese authorities sought cooperation from their counterparts in Dubai, investigators have said.

The move came more than two months after he was expelled as an Upper House lawmaker for failing to show up to parliamentary sessions in person, soon after which police issued an arrest warrant for him over alleged threats to defame celebrities. GaaSyy, whose real name is Yoshikazu Higashitani, had said he would not return to Japan.

Pressure was exerted on GaaSyy in various ways: Following requests from Japanese investigators, he was placed on Interpol's wanted list; his passport was canceled after he failed to comply with the Foreign Ministry’s instructions to hand it over; his mother’s home was raided in March; and in May, Japanese investigators visited Dubai to seek cooperation from local authorities.

Tokyo's Metropolitan Police Department said that GaaSyy’s return was the “result of UAE authorities’ measures and not a voluntary one,” but did not elaborate further.

“I can’t say what happened in Dubai because of his relationship with the UAE,” GaaSyy’s lawyer Yuki Takahashi said in a video statement posted on social media soon after he met with his client Sunday night at a Tokyo police station for about an hour.

“He did not have to return to Japan due to financial reasons or because he ran out of money” after his social media accounts were shut down, he said. GaaSyy had been making money from his videos on social media detailing what he described as “scandalous revelations” of celebrities he used to be acquainted with.

Takahashi also said that GaaSyy was not accompanied by Japanese police on the plane back to Tokyo, saying that he boarded the plane of his own volition and was texting relevant people during the flight.

“He said he was relieved to come back to Japan,” said Takahashi. “He said what he had done had been done, so he will cooperate” with the investigation. GaaSyy asked the lawyer to bring his favorite comic, the Jump weekly.

Former NHK Party leader Takashi Tachibana, who had been texting back and forth with GaaSyy on his flight back, said Sunday that he thought it was probably better for GaaSyy to be detained by Japanese police rather than Dubai authorities.

Tachibana also said GaaSyy probably decided to come back because it was causing trouble for his family.

Investigators are looking into possible charges over alleged threats by GaaSyy against TV celebrities and businesspeople that he would reveal compromising information on their family members.

GaaSyy was arrested Sunday for threatening to defame three people, including actor Go Ayano, in YouTube videos. He is additionally suspected of interfering with the business activities of one of the three people.

Jewelry designer Kimio Fukutani closed down his store in Tokyo weeks after it opened in March 2022 after GaaSyy posted a video criticizing the store on the basis that it was solely funded by one of GaaSyy’s acquaintances, who pitched in ¥900 million, with none of the money coming from Fukutani himself. The investor subsequently pulled the funding, forcing Fukutani to close down the store.

When GaaSyy found out that Fukutani was one of the people who filed a complaint against him to police, he posted a video reportedly saying that Fukutani should think about the consequences for his family.

“I hope it would be clear as soon as possible that what he said about me was untrue,” Fukutani said in a statement Sunday.

GaaSyy is also suspected of threatening actor Go Ayano and Dwango founder Nobuo Kawakami, who tweeted in March that GaaSyy had offered a reward of up to ¥3 million for tips on scandalous information about Kawakami.

“What goes around comes around,” Kawakami posted on Twitter on Sunday.

Information from Kyodo added