Being taken away in front of his wife and child. Could there be anything more humiliating for the person being arrested?

The family is also suffering. One day, the police suddenly come and throw their loved one in jail. They don’t come back for months or years. The sin of crackdown on Kan-nama is that it causes suffering not only to the members but also to their families.

Akira Ohara was arrested while at home with his family.

He had simply devoted himself to union activities and had done nothing to be guilty of. Ohara, his wife, and his children had nothing to be ashamed of. When Ohara was released from detention, his son said, “You’re cool, Dad.”

The fifth testimony tells the story of “family and oppression” as told by Ohara and his wife.

Days of anxiety: “Will they come to arrest me today or tomorrow?”

I was arrested by the Osaka Prefectural Police in September 2018, the Shiga Prefectural Police in February 2019, and the Wakayama Prefectural Police in July 2019. Just when I thought I was finally released on bail from detention, I was arrested and detained again. This happened over and over again. I was suspected of obstruction of business and attempted coercion, but I did nothing wrong. In the Shiga case, all I did was distribute a few flyers for 10 or 15 minutes saying that construction companies should comply with the law at construction sites.

There are signs before an arrest. There are rumors that they are coming soon, and before I was arrested by the Shiga Prefectural Police, I saw a security vehicle with Shiga number plates hanging around in front of my house.

I was anxious every day wondering if they would come to arrest me today, or tomorrow. I would wake up at 3:30 in the morning and look out the window. Even when I took my dog ​​out for a walk at 4, I was still nervous. It continued for days and eventually I got to the point where I thought, “If they’re going to come, come quickly.”

The prosecutor stops the interrogation by saying, “I’m going to a fancy Japanese barbeque restaurant with my girlfriend.”

I lived with my wife and three children, five of us. At the time of my arrest, the children were around 20 years old.

I regularly told my family about my activities at Kan-nama, so even if I were to be arrested, they knew that I hadn’t done anything wrong.

In fact, it is precisely because Kan-nama has been negotiating on an equal footing with the managers of the ready-mix concrete company that the wages of workers have been raised. It is thanks to this that I was able to raise three children comfortably and buy a house while working as a mixer truck driver.

The aim of the police and the prosecutors was not to charge me with a crime, but to force me to leave Kan-nama. The prosecutor asked me, “Does your wife know that you are doing this kind of activity?”

The prosecutor in Shiga had a ridiculous attitude. One day, he finished his interrogation quickly, so I asked him why, and he said, “I’m going to a fancy Japanese barbeque restaurant with my girlfriend.”

The court didn’t even grant bail when we applied for it, without even doing a proper investigation. I was angry at the court, thinking it was just doing what the prosecution told it to do. I was scared because I thought that ordinary people in Japan probably don’t know that things like this are happening.

Although they understood, I caused my family concern. I caused trouble for my children too.

I have a golden retriever named Krell, but while I was away she lost fur due to stress. Now her fur is growing back.

“Why should my husband be taken away just for distributing flyers?”

When the Osaka Prefectural Police came to arrest my husband, the media was waiting outside the front door. I told him to be careful, but the moment I opened the door, I was hit by the flash of light.

The Shiga Prefectural Police were the ones in full swing. They came with about 7 or 8 people. That day was the day my daughter was going on a trip to Korea with her friends. Then the investigator asked to see what was inside the trunk. It had nothing to do with my daughter, she’s a girl. I told them to stop. If I hadn’t refused, they would have opened it. They opened my dresser drawers. They even tried to open the drawer that had my underwear, so I told them to stop.

In the end, it’s probably about harassing Kan-nama. In the Shiga case, they were just distributing flyers. It’s the same as handing out tissues on the street. I don’t understand. I told the investigator, “Why should my husband be taken away just for distributing flyers?”

It makes you wonder what the purpose of the Constitution is. Why would someone be taken away for something like this? Even their families are hurt. There are so many people who have done worse things.

My husband’s arrest was reported on NHK during the lunchtime news. They filmed my husband leaving the front door and getting into the police vehicle. If you’re the average person, when you see someone being arrested and it’s reported in the news, you think they must have done something wrong.

My children and I never thought that my husband had done anything wrong. He often talked to me about union activities, and I had participated in several events held by Kan-nama. We had barbecues and played bingo. When my children were small, we also went mushroom picking. We had a great time with the union members and their families.

Prosecutor Kyoko Amakawa called the wife

When my husband was in detention, I got a call from a number I didn’t recognize while I was on my way home after finishing work at my part-time job at a grocery store. It was a prosecutor named Amakawa. She suddenly asked me, “What do you think about your husband being detained like this?” She also said things like, “Why don’t you convince your husband to quit the union?”

I got away with saying “I don’t know,” but when she said, “If this continues, your husband will never be released,” I wondered, “Am I being threatened?”

Prosecutor Amakawa also asked me to tell her the names of union members from Kana-nama that I knew.

During his detention, my husband lost weight rapidly. It must have been difficult for him. I often brought him books to help him distract himself in his solitary confinement. He said he wanted a long book that he could immerse himself in, so I brought him novels.

When he was released and came home, my husband couldn’t speak. He used to have a loud voice, but after his release, his voice was shaking when he spoke. I was a little surprised to see what happens to a person if they don’t speak for months.

The dog was very happy since she was attached to my husband. She was barking in a high-pitched voice, and I wondered where that voice was coming from. The dog was the happiest.

My son said, “You were cool, Dad.” He said it was cool that his father was not ashamed of what he was doing and stuck to it. I think my husband was so happy to hear his son say that.

This incident made me realize that the news is not always true. I don’t trust the news as much anymore. I’ve come to realize that the most important thing is to trust myself and my family.

[Reporter’s Postscript] I’m glad there are people who understand me / Editor-in-Chief Makoto Watanabe 

Just knowing that there are people who understand can make you so much stronger.

I felt this way when I interviewed Mr. and Mrs. Ohara. Although I interviewed each of them separately, their perceptions and thoughts were perfectly in sync.

By in sync, I don’t mean that the wife unconditionally accepts her husband’s activities at Kan-nama. Rather, the wife herself has met with the members of Kan-nama, understood her husband’s explanation, and judged that “this activity is right.” That’s why she is strong. When I asked her about the episode where the prosecutor called her cell phone, “Do you remember the prosecutor’s name?”, she answered decisively, “It’s Prosecutor Amakawa. I’ll never forget it.”

Even though his wife and children are understanding, the harshness of detention is unimaginable. The entrance to the detention cell is a cage, and the outside is closed off with an iron door. It’s a small space, and the ceiling is looming in front of you. On the first night, Ohara thought, “I can’t do this.” He lost 30 kilograms.

The wife also suffered. Not only was her husband absent, but the prosecutor called her cell phone and threatened that her husband would continue to be detained unless he resigned from Kan-nama. It is a criminal’s tactic to try to get his way by saying, “Do you care what happens to your family?” Isn’t the prosecutors’ position to expose criminals, but are they the criminal?

Instead of stopping the abuse of power, the media came with the police and pointed their cameras at Ohara. Ohara’s wife was outraged, saying, “The reporters left without listening to anything we had to say.”

It’s too cruel that the only people who “understand” are family. Even now, more media outlets must stand up against the oppression of Kan-nama so that society as a whole can understand correctly. I will reach out to like-minded colleagues, and as Tansa, I am always available to cooperate with investigations.

(Originally published in Japanese on March 19, 2025. Translation by Mana Shibata.)

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