“I don’t mind killing him,” Japanese man with disabilities sues over “mental anguish due to internet postings”

From NHK

April 14 2023

Maebashi City, Gunma Pref – A man with severe paralysis who sued Maebashi City for necessary nursing care services filed a lawsuit against the city, claiming that he was mentally distressed by postings on an Internet message board after the lawsuit was filed, such as “Let’s just kill the animals.”

According to the complaint, Kazuaki Hyodo (47), who is severely paralyzed due to illness, he filed a lawsuit against Maebashi City in April last year, seeking the necessary amount of nursing care services. , It is said that there were posts on bulletin boards on the Internet saying things like, “I don’t mind killing him,” and “There’s no reason to keep him alive, just kill him.’’

Therefore, he filed a lawsuit seeking damages of more than 3.9 million yen, including against two contributors in Tokyo and Aichi Prefecture, saying that he suffered mental anguish.

According to the attorney for the plaintiff, after the defamatory posts were made, they demanded the disclosure of the sender’s information from the operating company of the bulletin board, and received apologies from multiple people who made the posts and a settlement was established, but a lawsuit was filed. Two people did not respond to the information disclosure procedure.

Jun Shimoyama, who represented the plaintiff, said, “These are offensive and discriminatory words and actions, and they disrespect the lives of people with disabilities. I hope that the environment will be such that disabled people will not be criticised for using their rights in a normal way.”