{"id":180210,"date":"2026-10-09T14:13:35","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T05:13:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/?post_type=news&#038;p=180210&#038;lang=en"},"modified":"2026-10-09T14:13:40","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T05:13:40","slug":"fukuoka-mayoral-hopeful-describes-harm-from-false-online-claims","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/en\/news\/fukuoka-mayoral-hopeful-describes-harm-from-false-online-claims\/","title":{"rendered":"Fukuoka mayoral hopeful describes harm from false online claims"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Fukuoka mayoral hopeful Ayano Sasaki says false claims circulating online have caused harm to her and her family. RKB reported that accusations linking her to Chinese espionage drew on her experience studying in China. In a Sept. 23 statement, she described threats and harm affecting family members. An account that posted the claims apologized and removed them, but the allegations continued to spread. Experts interviewed by RKB urged voters to check information themselves and compare candidates\u2019 policies ahead of the Nov. 15 election. <strong>Source:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/newsdig.tbs.co.jp\/articles\/rkb\/2993736?display=1\" target=\"_blank\">RKB News<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/fnn_ayano-sasaki_2026_cl.jpg?resize=1078%2C876&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"1078\" height=\"876\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-180211\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/fnn_ayano-sasaki_2026_cl.jpg?w=1078&amp;ssl=1 1078w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/fnn_ayano-sasaki_2026_cl.jpg?resize=300%2C244&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/fnn_ayano-sasaki_2026_cl.jpg?resize=1024%2C832&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/fnn_ayano-sasaki_2026_cl.jpg?resize=768%2C624&amp;ssl=1 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><br \/>\nPhoto: Ayano Sasaki (Facebook)<\/p>\n<p>Get Fukuoka and Kyushu\u2019s top stories delivered to your inbox. The Now is Fukuoka Now\u2019s free biweekly newsletter featuring local news, events, culture, business, and community updates in English. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/en\/mailmagazine\/\">Subscribe to The Now<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Summaries based on public content, errors may occur during translation. Images credited independently. Send feedback using <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/en\/contact\/\">this <strong>form<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fukuoka mayoral hopeful Ayano Sasaki says false claims circulating online have caused harm to her and her family. RKB reported that accusations linking her to Chinese espionage drew on&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30292,"featured_media":180211,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","tags":[],"class_list":["post-180210","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","location-fukuoka-city","news-category-politics","en-US"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/180210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30292"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180210"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}