PM Takaichi denies online smearing campaign against opponents by her camp

TOKYO - Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Monday denied reports that her camp spread videos online via anonymous accounts to smear opponents in last year's ruling Liberal Democratic Party leadership race and the February general election.

The reports, which first appeared in the weekly magazine Shukan Bunshun in late April, claimed Takaichi's publicly funded first secretary and others made and posted videos criticizing politicians including LDP leadership rival and now Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi, in which he was called "incapable" and a "puppet of hereditary politics."