Photo By Sponichi
International lawyer Hiroshi Kiyohara appeared live as a commentator on TBS’s “Gogosuma – GOGO! Smile” (Monday to Friday at 1:55 PM) on the 7th and explained a damages lawsuit filed by a female para-archery athlete, Chika Shigesada (41), who claimed her honor was harmed by a blog post.
The Tokyo District Court recognized on the 6th that the plaintiff suffered mental distress due to the post and ordered the defendant to pay about 1.24 million yen. The side of Shigesada has indicated their intention to appeal.
The plaintiff, Asako Onodera (48), stated after the verdict, “If there was awareness of being a representative, one could not make such a post. I feel regret about (Shigesada’s) participation in the Paris Paralympics.”
Regarding the lawsuit, Kiyohara prefaced his comments by saying, “As it is expected to be appealed, we do not know whether the verdict will become final,” and pointed out, “As the Tokyo District Court stated, there was a post claiming rule violations, but if it is a rule violation, then it should not be written on a blog. One could simply inquire with the governing sports organization, ‘Isn’t this a rule violation?'” He questioned, “Why write it on the other person’s blog? That is the issue.”
Furthermore, he commented, “We think we write in a correct manner, but that may also hurt the other person, so we need to really consider whether it is something to write on a blog or social media. Isn’t it better to just say it somewhere else?”
With the development of social media, incidents of defamation and slander are occurring everywhere, and it is becoming problematic that even athletes participating in the Paris Olympics are being subjected to heartless remarks. In this case, the disclosure request for the identity of the sender from the Onodera side revealed that it was Shigesada who made the post. Kiyohara warned, “Even if done anonymously, it is mostly possible to identify who wrote it through disclosure requests. I think one can assume that there is no anonymity.”
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