A YouTuber-turned-lawmaker was expelled from Japan’s upper house on Wednesday following his continuous absence from parliamentary sessions since being elected last year.

Yoshikazu Higashitani, who also goes by GaaSyy including on a popular YouTube account that has since been suspended, lost his seat after he failed to appear in the House of Councilors while residing abroad, angering colleagues.

The 51-year-old received almost 300,000 votes last July in his campaign for the Diet, Japan’s parliament, as a member of a single-issue party that advocates reforms to NHK, the Japanese public broadcaster. He had been living in the United Arab Emirates even before the election and has not returned to Japan since, citing concerns he might be detained by police investigating defamation complaints stemming from the celebrity gossip that propelled him to YouTube stardom.