April 4, 2025

Japanese Communist Party Executive Committee Chair Tamura Tomoko at a press conference held in the Diet building on April 3 said that a JCP Mie prefectural assemblymember who proposed “free sanitary pads in public toilets” on a social media site received a large number of death threat e-mails, calling such intimidation a despicable crime.

JCP assemblyperson Yoshida Ayaka on March 25 posted on her X account, “I want sanitary napkins to be made available in public restrooms,” referring to the fact that menstrual pads are not provided in the restrooms at the Tsu City government office. Yoshida and the prefectural assembly secretariat received more than 8,000 death threats via e-mail between March 28 and 31.

Tamura said that threatening e-mails were also sent to supporters of Yoshida as well as to the JCP Mie Prefectural Committee. She added that some of these threatening e-mails were found to have been sent by hijacking e-mail addresses of hospitals, law firms, and other organizations.

She pointed out that internationally, the eradication of violence against female and minority lawmakers is a challenge that needs to be addressed for the sake of gender equality in politics.

The JCP EC chair expressed her determination to join forces in solidarity with concerned citizens to create a society that will not tolerate anonymous threatening attacks on movements and individuals calling for gender equality and social change.

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