Police to probe 60 suspected poll offenses

October 22, 2017

Tokyo- Japanese police are ready to start probes into some 60 cases of suspected public offices election law violations after Sunday's House of Representatives election, the National Police Agency has said.

The police will investigate about 100 people in the cases, about half of which are suspected vote buying mainly by wining and dining and handing cash to campaign staff members.

As of Friday, seven people were arrested. Six of them were suspected of violating freedom of election through such acts as damaging election posters and obstructing street speeches.

At the time of the previous Lower House election in 2014, the number of arrested people two days before the election was six.

The police gave warnings over 1,458 suspected election law violation cases, up by eight from the previous time.

The sum included 1,158 cases in which inappropriate documents were displayed. Warnings were issued over six cases linked to online activities. Jiji Press