Ryutaro Nonomura

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Ryutaro Nonomura
野々村 竜太郎
Member of the Hyogo Prefectural Assembly
In office
June 11, 2011 – July 11, 2014
ConstituencyNishinomiya City
Personal details
Born (1966-07-29) July 29, 1966 (age 57)
Osaka, Japan
Political partyIndependent (2008–2011)
Nishinomiya Restoration Association (2011–2012)
Nishinomiya's Goddess of Hope (2012–2013)
The Last Hope (2013–2014)
The Last Hope Regional Party (2014)
Criminal details
Criminal chargeExpenses fraud and misuse of funding
Penalty3 years imprisonment
4 years suspended sentence

Ryutaro Nonomura (Japanese: 野々村 竜太郎, Hepburn: Nonomura Ryūtarō, born July 29, 1966) is a former Japanese politician and convicted fraudster known for his crying outburst during a press conference in 2014. Being elected to the Hyogo Prefectural Assembly in 2011, Nonomura had a short legislative career before resigning in 2014 due to a financing scandal.[1] His press conference became a meme due to his uncontrollable crying after being asked to explain his finances.[2] In 2016, he was sentenced to three years in prison and four years suspended sentence for expenses fraud and misuse of funding.[3][4]

Early life and education[edit]

Nonomura was born on July 29, 1966 in Osaka, graduating from Osaka Prefectural Kitano High School and entering Kansai University, later becoming an advisor for the Hyogo Prefectural Office Shurei-kai, organized by Kansai University graduates. After graduating, he was employed as a public employee at Kawanishi City Hall for 15 years, a job he left in order to pursue politics.[5]

Political career[edit]

After seeing the election of Tōru Hashimoto, who also went to Osaka Prefectural Kitano High School, he retired from civil service in November 2007 and decided to become a politician. He first ran for Mayor of Taishi in 2008, but lost against two other candidates in a landslide.[6] He ran three more times for office, twice for Mayor of Nishinomiya and once for Hyogo Prefectural Assembly, but also lost.[7]

In April 2011, Nonomura ran for Hyogo Prefectural Assembly for the Nishinomiya City constituency, which consisted of seven seats up for election. He went under the party Nishinomiya Restoration Party, and with 11,291 votes, Nonomura was elected as an assemblymember.[8] As an assemblymember, he was active as a nonpartisan politician.

On June 30, 2014, the Kobe Shimbun reported that Nonomura spent 5.64 million yen on political activity expenses during the 2013 fiscal year, exceeding the average of 5.22 million yen spent by most assemblymembers, which included multiple trips to an onsen in Toyooka as well as multiple trips to Sayō.[9][10] It was later determined that it would be impossible for Nonomura to attend all trips, with Nonomura's private schedules having no indication of multiple trips.[11]

Conference outburst[edit]

Nonomura's outburst during a conference became the subject of memes and parodies.

On July 2, 2014, Nonomura called a press conference about his visits, answering most of the reporters' questions by giving vague answers and saying "I don't remember".[12] When he was asked by a reporter to explain the allegations against him, Nonomura started crying and "uttering nonsensical phrases and banging on the desk".[13][14] Video of his crying went viral, being played repeatedly by multiple Japanese television stations and being viewed by more than 730,000 people on YouTube.[15][16]

After the conference, Assembly chairman Tadao Kajitani and members of the Liberal Democratic Party demanded his resignation, and on July 11, 2014, amid an investigation into his scandal and new charges for fraud, he resigned from the Assembly.[1][17]

Post-legislative career[edit]

After resigning from the assembly, he lived with his parents in their apartment in Suminoe-ku, Osaka, and refunded the public funds that were defrauded.[18]

In August 2015, Nonomura was indicted without detention for fraud and the preparation and use of false official documents with a false seal.[19] In January 2016, the Kobe District Court took steps to ensure that he would show up to court after he failed to show up on November 24, saying that his mental condition and the media prevented him from leaving his house.[20] He made his first appearance in court on January 26, pleading not guilty and denying making false statements in his funding reports.[21] In July 2016, Nonomura was sentenced to three years in prison and suspension for four years for expenses fraud.[22][23] That same year, his crying outburst was parodied by the anime Gintama, where Gintoki Sakata apologized for the series not ending properly and announced that there would be a new season.[24]

In 2024, Nonomura started a radio talk show and an online love consultation service.[25][26]

Electoral history[edit]

2008 Taishi mayoral election[27]
Party Candidate Votes %
Independent Masahiro Shuto (incumbent) 8,009 58.62
Independent Takahiro Ueyama 5,267 38.56
Independent Ryutaro Nonomura 385 2.82
Total votes 13,661 100.00
2008 Nishinomiya mayoral election[28]
Party Candidate Votes %
Independent Satoshi Yamada (incumbent) 47,515 39.72
Independent Yonetaro Yagi 21,151 17.68
Independent Naozumi Atoda 18,651 15.59
Independent Takayuki Fujii 13,736 11.48
Independent Seiji Tsukada 12,395 10.36
Independent Ryutaro Nonomura 6,184 5.17
Total votes 119,632 100.00
2009 Hyogo Prefectural Assembly by-election in Nishinomiya[29]
Party Candidate Votes %
Independent Ohmae Haruyo 41,748 36.64
Communist Keiko Isomi 38,823 34.08
Independent Ryutaro Nonomura 33,359 29.28
Total votes 113,930 100.00
2010 Nishinomiya mayoral election[30]
Party Candidate Votes %
Independent Masahiro Kohno 48,816 40.37
Independent Shigeo Ohmae 46,168 38.18
Independent Ryutaro Nonomura 25,924 21.45
Total votes 120,908 100.00
2011 Hyogo Prefectural Assembly by-election in Nishinomiya[31]
Party Candidate Votes %
NK Yutaka Noguchi (incumbent) 21,207 15.26
Independent Ohmae Haruyo (incumbent) 20,109 14.47
Communist Keiko Isomi 16,652 11.98
Liberal Democratic Yasutoshi Kitagawa (incumbent) 16,601 11.94
Democratic Masafumi Kuriyama 13,445 9.67
Democratic Sumie Kakemizu (incumbent) 11,491 8.27
Nishinomiya Restoration Party Ryutaro Nonomura 11,291 8.12
Liberal Democratic Nobuo Tsutsui (incumbent) 10,882 7.83
Liberal Democratic Akihiro Tanaka (incumbent) 9,503 6.84
Democratic Tatsuo Iwasaki 7,832 5.63
Total votes 139,013 100.00

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b "Crying Japanese politician resigns as investigation into expenses broadens". The Guardian. July 11, 2014.
  2. ^ Schreiber, Mark (July 19, 2014). "Politician Nonomura weeps and the world laughs". The Japan Times.
  3. ^ "Bawling Japanese politician who became internet sensation sentenced for graft". South China Morning Post. July 6, 2016.
  4. ^ "Crying Politician Ryūtarō Nonomura is Back". Anime News Network. February 1, 2016.
  5. ^ ""号泣絶叫"元県議・野々村竜太郎が「赤裸々な生配信」をひっそりスタートさせていた！". Livedoor (in Japanese). March 10, 2023.
  6. ^ "西宮市長選 副市長と元川西市職員が立候補表明". 47NEWS (in Japanese). April 20, 2010. Archived from the original on July 14, 2014.
  7. ^ Yoshino, Taichiro (July 2, 2014). "野々村竜太郎氏、号泣の裏に4回落選の過去 「やっと議員になれた」". HuffPost (in Japanese).
  8. ^ "「仲間と勘違いされる」号泣会見〝悪夢の残像〟におびえる維新 震源地の兵庫県議会、まだまだある政活費の不適切使途". Sankei Shimbun (in Japanese). July 16, 2015.
  9. ^ "目的示さず交通費３００万支出 西宮の県議、政務活動費から". Kobe Shimbun (in Japanese). June 30, 2014. Archived from the original on July 2, 2014.
  10. ^ Yoshino, Taichiro (July 7, 2014). "野々村竜太郎氏、日帰り出張197回 カレンダーで見ると...【号泣県議】". HuffPost (in Japanese).
  11. ^ "野々村被告の判決要旨「収支報告書内容は虚偽」「レシート改竄」". Sankei Shimbun (in Japanese). July 6, 2016.
  12. ^ Nakata, Yumi (July 28, 2014). "Ryutaro Nonomura: The Japanese Crying Politician". GaijinPot.
  13. ^ "Ryutaro Nonomura, Japanese politician, weeps during bizarre press conference". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. July 3, 2014.
  14. ^ Keneally, Meghan (July 3, 2014). "Crying Japanese Politician Breaks Down in Uncontrollable Hysterics". ABC News.
  15. ^ Saul, Heather (July 2, 2014). "Video of Japanese politician Ryutaro Nonomura crying hysterically at press conference goes viral". The Independent.
  16. ^ Ashcraft, Brian (July 2, 2014). "Japanese Politician Freaks Out, Spawns Internet Memes". Kotaku.
  17. ^ "Weeping Hyogo lawmaker hit with fraud charge". The Japan Times. July 11, 2014.
  18. ^ "自宅に引き籠もり生活 "号泣県議"こと野々村竜太郎氏は今". Nikkan Gendai (in Japanese). May 2, 2018. p. 3.
  19. ^ "〝号泣〟野々村元県議を在宅起訴". Sankei Shimbun (in Japanese). August 18, 2015.
  20. ^ "Court takes steps to bring 'crying politician' to trial". The Japan Times. January 25, 2016.
  21. ^ "Hyogo's 'crying politician' appears in court, pleads not guilty to fraud". The Japan Times. January 26, 2016.
  22. ^ "'Weeping politician' Nonomura gets suspended sentence for fraud". The Japan Times. July 6, 2016.
  23. ^ "警察の陰謀まで主張した「野々村劇場」終幕へ 何を聞かれても「記憶にない」連発…実刑判決か猶予判決か". Sankei Shimbun (in Japanese). July 6, 2016.
  24. ^ Nakamura, Toshi (April 9, 2015). "Anime Satirizes Life, Shocks Its Editors". Kotaku.
  25. ^ "「世界的に有名人の私が…」号泣議員・野々村竜太郎氏がひっそり始めた5万円"恋愛相談"サービス". Yahoo! News. February 22, 2024.
  26. ^ "「世界的に有名人の私が…」号泣議員・野々村竜太郎氏がひっそり始めた5万円"恋愛相談"サービス". BIGLOBE. February 22, 2024.
  27. ^ "太子町長選挙（2008年07月27日投票）". go2senkyo.
  28. ^ "西宮市長選挙（2008年11月16日投票）". go2senkyo.
  29. ^ "兵庫県議会議員補欠選挙 西宮市選挙区". go2senkyo.
  30. ^ "西宮市長選挙（2010年05月16日投票）". go2senkyo.
  31. ^ "兵庫県議会議員選挙 西宮市選挙区". go2senkyo.
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