Anti-vax group hit with new charges for breaking into 2nd Tokyo inoculation site – The Mainichi

TOKYO — Police on June 2 served fresh arrest warrants on the leader of the anti-vaccination group YamatoQ and several of its members for allegedly forcing their way into a children’s COVID-19 inoculation site in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

YamatoQ head Hiroyuki Kuraoka, 43, and four other group members are already under indictment for trespassing for allegedly breaking into another vaccination site in Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward on April 7.

In the latest incident, the Metropolitan Police Department’s Public Security Bureau has again accused Kuraoka, a resident of the capital’s Ota Ward, and four other members aged between 41 and 65 of trespassing. Police believe the YamatoQ members intruded into a vaccination venue for children at the Genkikan public sport complex in Shinjuku Ward’s Toyama district shortly past 1 p.m. on March 29.

According to the Public Security Bureau and the Shinjuku Ward Office, Kuraoka and other members allegedly barged into the venue after pushing through staff trying to stop them at the entrance. They then reportedly surrounded medical workers while saying, “Stop illegal inoculations now,” and, “Don’t you know Q?”

The members were subsequently persuaded to leave by police who arrived at the scene, but vaccinations were halted for about an hour, affecting some 20 children.

Kuraoka and seven other YamatoQ members were arrested in the April 7 Shibuya Ward incident for allegedly breaking into a clinic serving as a children’s COVID-19 vaccination site. Kuraoka and four others have been indicted.

(Japanese original by Buntaro Saito, Tokyo City News Department)