Despite the various laws on the books in Japan meant to combat hate speech and racial discrimination, there is seemingly no end to these acts on the internet, especially in the age of Twitter.
In July, Kawasaki became the first city in Japan to enact an ordinance that prohibits hate speech and makes the offense punishable. However, the ordinance covers only hate speech in public, physical spaces.
While many of those who have been victimized in cyberspace are afraid to speak out, some have tried to take action to end the assaults.
-- 'I'm near you'
"Get out of here!" "Human scum" -- it was around the spring of 2016 that such malicious comments began being posted on the internet against Choi Kang-ija, 47, a third-generation Korean living and working in Kawasaki. She became the target of haters especially after she attended the Diet deliberation of the anti-hate speech law as a witness. The law took effect in the summer of that year.
In less than six months, several thousand aggressive posts were made against Choi on the internet.
A poster who called himself Kyokuto no Kodama (Echo of the Far East) on Twitter was particularly persistent. He tweeted about the real-time weather in Kawasaki and uploaded pictures of famous confectionaries in the city. "Turn around, I'm here," he posted.
Choi felt that the man lived nearby and was watching her. Fear of the invisible stalker caused her to suffer from hearing difficulty and insomnia. A dead cockroach was sent to Choi's workplace.
-- Summary order to offender
In the fall of 2016, Choi filed a complaint about the case with the human rights office in the Justice Ministry, claiming, "There are many discriminatory tweets," and requested through the ministry that Twitter delete the relevant posts. The social media company's regulations prohibit posting tweets that direct discrimination against certain ethnic groups.
Particularly malicious tweets were removed, but many remained.
In May 2017, Choi filed a criminal complaint against the man on suspicion of intimidation. Police identified the poster as a man living in Kanagawa Prefecture and searched his home at the end of the year. After that, the online attacks against Choi stopped.
The case against the man, now 52, was sent to prosecutors, but he was exempted from indictment in February 2019. Choi then filed a complaint against him with the Yokohama District Public Prosecutors Office on suspicion of violating Kanagawa Prefecture's anti-nuisance ordinance.
In December that year, the Kawasaki Summary Court found that the man had defamed Choi and ordered him to pay a 300,000 yen fine for violating the section of the ordinance that prohibits stalking.
"There are still many racist posts on the internet, but many people cannot speak out for fear of being attacked," Choi said.
"I have nothing to tell you," the man told The Yomiuri Shimbun.
Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/
