Maebashi Court Orders Man to Pay 960,000 Yen in Damages Over Disability Hate Speech on Online Anonymous Bulletin Board Despite Defamation Claim Rejected

From The Mainichi Shimbun via Livedoor

December 9 2023

Maebashi – Maebashi District Court has ordered a man who made a post on an  anonymous bulletin board on the Internet to pay 960,000 yen in damages.

Kazuaki Hyodo (48), a man with severe disabilities from Maebashi City, was seeking approximately 1.95 million yen in damages from the man who made the post, in Tokyo, for suffering mental pain after being defamed on an anonymous bulletin board on the Internet. On December 8th, the Maebashi District Court (presiding judge Ritsuko Jinno) handed down a judgment ordering the man [who posted] to pay approximately 960,000 yen.

According to the ruling, in April 2022, when news broke about Hyodo’s administrative lawsuit demanding that Maebashi City provide 24-hour nursing care services, the man posted on the anonymous online bulletin board 5channel, `”Extermination is fine.”

Judge Jinno pointed out that this post “showed extreme disregard for the plaintiff’s life and denied his character in an extremely unfair manner”. He also stated that the man’s use of insulting expressions in his written defence “did not alleviate the plaintiff’s suffering in any way”. On the other hand, the court found that it was difficult to accept that the plaintiff’s objective reputation in society had been damaged by the postings and that they did not amount to defamation.

The plaintiff’s lawyer Jun Shimoyama held a press conference in Maebashi City after the judgment and said: “Although it was only one case and a short post, 600,000 yen in compensation was approved. The court made it clear that hate speech against people with disabilities is unacceptable and that they must be held strictly responsible”. Regarding the fact that defamation was not accepted, the court stated that “This post promotes eugenic ideology and makes it difficult for disabled people to live. It is regrettable, although I had hoped that the social impact would also be taken into account”. According to Lawyer Shimoyama, there were over 700 posts on the 5chan thread where the man wrote, most of which were discriminatory.

Hyodo has also filed a lawsuit against a man in Aichi Prefecture over online defamation.