He added that the party would be renamed “Seijika Joshi 48 To,” which translates to Politician Girls 48 Party, and that the actress Ayaka Otsu would replace him. Mr. Tachibana said that the party would broaden its goals and would also recruit only female candidates to run for upcoming local elections.
“The NHK party, despite rebranding, has achieved little except to register discontent with the Establishment and unhappiness with the mandatory fees every household has to pay, even if they don’t watch NHK,” Jeff Kingston, a professor of Asian studies at Temple University’s Japan campus, wrote in an email. He added that Mr. Higashitani had been elected in the first place because he seemed to provide an inspiring alternative to voters who were fed up with politicians.
“He thought that not showing up was the same as shaking up Japanese politics,” Professor Kingston said. “He betrayed the disaffected voters who expected more of him and wanted to believe that change might be possible.”
Muneo Suzuki, who heads a key disciplinary committee in Parliament, told reporters on Tuesday that Mr. Higashitani had already been given ample time to correct his behavior, but that he had ultimately undermined the electoral process. “GaaSyy doesn’t understand what democracy means in principle,” he said.
Dozens of protesters, mostly members of the Seijika Joshi 48 Party, rallied in front of the legislature before lawmakers cast votes over whether to expel Mr. Higashitani. Among the 236 lawmakers who attended the session, all but one voted in favor of his ouster.
Mr. Higashitani could not be immediately reached for comment, but in a statement read on the House floor by Satoshi Hamada, a fellow lawmaker, Mr. Higashitani said that his removal was unjust.
“There will continue to be people like me running for office. If you do not want the world you have made to be destroyed, please exclude those people from candidacy from the very beginning,” he wrote in the statement. “I wish the same punishment upon lawmakers who leave their seats immediately after propping up their nameplates and ones who are asleep and don’t show up like myself.”
