Japan's parliament on Monday passed legislation making "online insults" punishable by imprisonment amid rising public concern over cyberbullying sparked by the suicide of a reality television star who had faced social media abuse.
yeah, this is a fucking weird one because Japan is dumb as shit and reactionary - so before the change the laws led to absolutely goofy non-punishment of cyberbullying, cyberstalking and online abuse, but the underlying dogshit of what can constitute defamation in Japan makes it dangerous.
EDIT: CW for self harm
as @doublepepperoni guessed, this is literally a reaction to the suicide of Hana Kimura: a pretty notable pro wrestler who was massively on the rise, had a famous wrestler mother as a teacher, was becoming one of the top draws of STARDOM (the company she wrestled for) at like age 20.
...and then she went on Terrace House, a big reality TV show in Japan where 6 young adults move into a house together. An episode cast her in a bad light due to an argument with some guy who wrecked her wrestling attire in the washing machine - the editing made her out to be a psychotic villain and the guy to be a "woe is me" downtrodden man who hadn't done anything wrong (when he had just wrecked her attire that she wore at Wrestle Kingdom in the Tokyo Dome - NJPW's biggest show of the year, in the biggest venue possible, where NJPW only ever holds men's matches - Japanese wrestling companies are largely gender-segregated but the history of that is way too long to explain).
The episode kicked off a shitstorm of twitter and japanese social media abuse where 1000s of people daily told her to kill herself mixed in with misogyny and racism (another long one to explain but Kyoko Kimura, while born in japan, is apparently mixed and faced a lot of racism about it).
Hana then effectively posted her suicide note on twitter and posted images of self harm alongside pics of abusive DMs before she stopped responding on social media - she'd killed herself with Hydrogen Sulfide.
The first guy arrested for the online abuse he sent her literally admitted it and responded he "couldn’t forgive Kimura’s attitude on the program", but under the law at the time he was fined the applicable amount: $80
Eighty fucking dollars was the cost of bullying someone into their suicide over a reality TV show.
Ever since, Kyoko Kimura has been lobbying the Japanese Parliament for new laws/changes to the crimes act to increase penalties for online abuse that causes harm. It was personal on multiple levels, as she had to go identify her dead daughter and then read her DMs that were filled with the same racism she'd been abused with forever.
But the big problem on the other side is that these laws apparently fall under the umbrella of defamation laws in Japan, and defamation in Japan is fucked - because you can defame a person or organisation whether the statement is true or false.
Only if "the act relates to matters of public interest and has been conducted solely for the benefit of the public, the truth or falsity of the alleged facts shall be examined, and punishment shall not be imposed if they are proven to be true". Given the cappies control the levers of power, what is actually "in the public interest" can be redefined to protect business at any time. This is cooked.
It's another example of a theoretically good law that will get twisted by the system into something terrible. Not unlike all the government surveillance in the West that's been justified by counter terrorism or protecting kids from pedophiles.
Japan is a country where people can still be denied jobs and educations based on their parents being communists, so I have no doubt this law will ultimately be used for shitty purposes.
Japan is a country where people can still be denied jobs and educations based on their parents being communists, so I have no doubt this law will ultim
I wish I had a good source to give you. Unfortunately I only know about this because people I know have been subjected to it, and one person I know witnessed it happening (i.e. sat in on a meeting where a candidate was denied due to failing a background check for having parents in the JCP).
It's common enough that you can find people asking about whether it's true or not on stuff like Japanese Yahoo answers, but I'd rather say "I can't prove it" than trot that out as proof.
yeah, this is a fucking weird one because Japan is dumb as shit and reactionary - so before the change the laws led to absolutely goofy non-punishment of cyberbullying, cyberstalking and online abuse, but the underlying dogshit of what can constitute defamation in Japan makes it dangerous.
EDIT: CW for self harm
as @doublepepperoni guessed, this is literally a reaction to the suicide of Hana Kimura: a pretty notable pro wrestler who was massively on the rise, had a famous wrestler mother as a teacher, was becoming one of the top draws of STARDOM (the company she wrestled for) at like age 20.
...and then she went on Terrace House, a big reality TV show in Japan where 6 young adults move into a house together. An episode cast her in a bad light due to an argument with some guy who wrecked her wrestling attire in the washing machine - the editing made her out to be a psychotic villain and the guy to be a "woe is me" downtrodden man who hadn't done anything wrong (when he had just wrecked her attire that she wore at Wrestle Kingdom in the Tokyo Dome - NJPW's biggest show of the year, in the biggest venue possible, where NJPW only ever holds men's matches - Japanese wrestling companies are largely gender-segregated but the history of that is way too long to explain).
The episode kicked off a shitstorm of twitter and japanese social media abuse where 1000s of people daily told her to kill herself mixed in with misogyny and racism (another long one to explain but Kyoko Kimura, while born in japan, is apparently mixed and faced a lot of racism about it).
Hana then effectively posted her suicide note on twitter and posted images of self harm alongside pics of abusive DMs before she stopped responding on social media - she'd killed herself with Hydrogen Sulfide.
The first guy arrested for the online abuse he sent her literally admitted it and responded he "couldn’t forgive Kimura’s attitude on the program", but under the law at the time he was fined the applicable amount: $80
Eighty fucking dollars was the cost of bullying someone into their suicide over a reality TV show.
Ever since, Kyoko Kimura has been lobbying the Japanese Parliament for new laws/changes to the crimes act to increase penalties for online abuse that causes harm. It was personal on multiple levels, as she had to go identify her dead daughter and then read her DMs that were filled with the same racism she'd been abused with forever.
But the big problem on the other side is that these laws apparently fall under the umbrella of defamation laws in Japan, and defamation in Japan is fucked - because you can defame a person or organisation whether the statement is true or false.
Only if "the act relates to matters of public interest and has been conducted solely for the benefit of the public, the truth or falsity of the alleged facts shall be examined, and punishment shall not be imposed if they are proven to be true". Given the cappies control the levers of power, what is actually "in the public interest" can be redefined to protect business at any time. This is cooked.
It's another example of a theoretically good law that will get twisted by the system into something terrible. Not unlike all the government surveillance in the West that's been justified by counter terrorism or protecting kids from pedophiles.
Japan is a country where people can still be denied jobs and educations based on their parents being communists, so I have no doubt this law will ultimately be used for shitty purposes.
Source? Cant find, sorry
I wish I had a good source to give you. Unfortunately I only know about this because people I know have been subjected to it, and one person I know witnessed it happening (i.e. sat in on a meeting where a candidate was denied due to failing a background check for having parents in the JCP).
It's common enough that you can find people asking about whether it's true or not on stuff like Japanese Yahoo answers, but I'd rather say "I can't prove it" than trot that out as proof.