Ex-Japanese vice minister denies making remarks about Taiwan's President Lai

Tokyo, April 25 (CNA) Former Japanese Vice Defense Minister Yasuhide Nakayama issued a "protest" on Facebook on Friday, denying making remarks that a former opposition Kuomintang lawmaker claimed he had made about Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) planning to target certain individuals.

"Regarding the statement circulated on social media on April 25, 2025, in which Mr. Tsai Cheng-yuan (蔡正元) alleges that 'Yasuhide Nakayama conveyed that President Lai Ching-te intended to target certain individuals' -- I, Yasuhide Nakayama, categorically and unequivocally deny these allegations," the politician from Osaka wrote on Facebook.

"These claims are entirely fabricated, and I reserve the right to take appropriate legal action, if necessary," Nakayama wrote.

Nakayama's statement, written in Japanese, Chinese, and English, was published on two Facebook pages he uses, shortly after 6 p.m. in Taipei, with a link to a news story about Tsai's Facebook post.

Tsai had written in his Facebook post at 4:46 p.m. Friday that "former Japanese Vice Defense Minister Yasuhide Nakayama told me through someone at the beginning of this month that Lai Ching-te is out to get me, Kuo Jeng-liang (郭正亮) and Fu Kun-chi (傅崐萁)."

Tsai is a former lawmaker from the KMT who served in the Legislative Yuan, Taiwan's parliament, between 2002 and 2016. Kuo is a former lawmaker from the Democratic Progressive Party, who quit the party in May 2023. Fu is a veteran KMT lawmaker from Hualien County, who has been the opposition party's legislative caucus whip since his current four-year term started in February 2024.

According to Tsai's Facebook post, during a court hearing on Friday afternoon regarding his appeal against a conviction of embezzlement, the prosecutors "suddenly" asked the court to impose restrictions on his traveling abroad, raise his bail amount, or order him to wear an electronic tag.

The court granted the motion to require Tsai to wear an electronic tag.

Tsai alleged this was the doing of Lai's people, explaining that a friend had told him an electronic tag can be used to accuse him of violating the court order, because if there is a bad signal, it could be used to accuse Tsai of breaking the court order and not wearing the tag.

There was no immediate response from Lai or the DPP about Tsai's allegations.

The Taiwan High Court responded to Tsai's remarks, however, saying that as Tsai was found guilty of embezzlement by the Taipei District Court in 2021 and had made trips abroad recently, the electronic tag was ordered to reduce flight risk while his appeal of the 2021 verdict continued.