Cyberbullying laws to be discussed by Japanese government following the passing of Hana Kimura

News
1

Originally published at Cyberbullying laws to be discussed by Japanese government following the passing of Hana Kimura - POST Wrestling | WWE AEW NXT NJPW Podcasts, News, Reviews

On May 23rd, World Wonder Ring STARDOM made the announcement that former two-time Artist of STARDOM Champion Hana Kimura passed away. Hana’s passing correlates to the cyberbullying that she endured after her appearance on the show ‘Terrace House’. After a scene aired in-which she and another cast member had a disagreement, she received a great deal of backlash on social media.

CNN covered the news of Hana’s passing and it’s noted in the article that Japan’s Minister of Internal Affairs and Communication, Sanae Takaichi is planning to speed up government discussions concerning cyberbullying laws. Takaichi is planning to lead a government panel to discuss if internet users should be identified if their posts are slanderous or include defamation.

Former cast member, Emika Mizukoshi described her experience on social media after the show aired and she received a number of threats online as well.

“I also was slandered after joining Terrace House, and was hurt,” she said in an Instagram post. “But we on TV are all human and have feelings. Words can be deadly weapons … We have to end this trend where you can say anything to so-called famous people.”

STARDOM founder Rossy Ogawa chatted with Sanspo.com about Hana Kimura’s death and talked about how the ‘Terrace House’ series brought a great deal of negative attention to the 22-year old. Rossy said that with the blessing of Hana’s family, STARDOM as a whole are considering taking legal action against cyberbullying.

“I discussed this matter of slander with Chigusa Nagayo (of Marvelous Women Pro Wrestling). We can’t judge it on our own, but in consultation with her bereaved family, STARDOM is considering taking legal action against malicious cyber-bullying.”

Additionally, STARDOM released another statement about Hana Kimura. The promotion noted that they will not be sharing any information about the funeral plans (date & location) for Kimura. They will also not be sharing any details of Hana’s passing out of respect for her family and asked that the media do not attempt to interview those who are related to Hana or are athletes of STARDOM.

“We would like to take this opportunity to apologize for your concern, deep sorrow, and all of the sudden obituary on May 23 of Hana Kimura, our affiliation.

As for the passing of Hana Kimura, it is said that there is no case as a result of police judgment.

For more detailed causes of death, etc., we will refrain from publishing due to the wishes of the bereaved family. We do not plan to announce the details here in our conferences and releases. We would like to ask all the mass media and fans for their kind understanding and consideration.

In addition, please refrain from interviewing bereaved families and athletes belonging to our company in consideration of the current situation.

In addition, please refrain from visiting the bereaved family, athletes’ homes, offices, practice areas, etc., as this may bother local residents.

Regarding the funeral of Kimura Hana, we will refrain from disclosing the date and time of the place because of the wishes of the bereaved family who want to do it inside. The mass media and fans are kindly requested to take this into consideration.

The bereaved family expressed their deep gratitude to the fans who supported Hana Kimura, and although the date and time of the event is currently undecided due to the new Corona Eruption, a memorial service for Hana Kimura will be held. We are considering. In addition to the entertainment, we plan to discuss the possibility of delivering images and photos to our fans.

Details will be announced as soon as they are decided.

We deeply pray for Hana Kimura.”

that’s all.”

The support came raining in for Kimura and POST Wrestling’s own WH Park joined the Double Or Nothing review podcast to discuss Hana’s passing and how the news is being covered in Japan.

 

2 Likes
2

How is this actually going to work? Going after trolls will be them completely missing the point. Trying to end the angry mob culture of social media is going to be a tough task but that’s what they’ll have to do if they want to solve anything.

3

Not to mention, the only way japan will have any power is if the comments are being posted from citizens of japan. If I had to guess, I would assume that the comments were coming from all over the place. This is one of those things that sounds great on paper, but I just can’t see it working.

4

I find trying to pass these laws a little unrealistic & I simply don’t trust governments to enact them. It really sucks, but I’m not sure this is the way.

1 Like
5

On the other hand, if cyber bullying results in self harm or suicide, you would hope that some law enforcement agencies would take action

1 Like
6

I mean the best I could see law wise is cracking down on companies if they don’t police the content on their sites. It is very difficult to go after actual individuals.

7

There’s not much you can do that doesn’t draw an arbitrary line, because at some point, you’re saying “this is OK and this isn’t” based on the opinion of a person/government/etc. that wasn’t involved in the situation.

If nothing else, you can make cyberbullying a crime in the same respect (legally) as a hate crime. Something to “tack on” to the charges when another crime has been committed. So, if someone gets charged with assault or stalking and there’s also cyberbullying involved, you can add that to the rap sheet.

1 Like
8

100% agreed. There are so many reasons as to why this won’t work.

Just off the top of my head, would you charge people based on what they said? Or based on how the person they said it to responded? For example, if multiple fans tweets that match was bad, and the wrestler commits suicide, does that constitute a charge? Or does it purely depend on what the “fan” says? What if the fans use terms like “that match was shit” vs “that match was bad”. Is one “bullying” while one is “constructive criticism”? Are both? Are neither? I know this sounds silly and I am in no way trying to dismiss what happened as it was awful and shouldn’t have happened, but if a law is going to come into effect, people need to know exactly what they can say vs what they can’t say. Its sad that it has to even come to this, it only people were decent. Unfortunately we live in a world where if people view someone as “deserving” of cruel words to be said to them, they will do it. Some people draw that line at murder, some at rape, some at being accused of rape or murder, some at commiting any crime, some at doing something mean on a reality show, some at having a bad wrestling match, some at having a “spot” in wrestling that you shouldnt etc. etc. etc.

Do you base charges off of the severity of the name calling? Is someone going to sit there and create a system as to what words can be said vs not be said? Do you base charges on how many people are involved? What if 50 people tweet horrible things at someone and 49 are from the North America, 1 is from Japan. Is the one from Japan the only person charged?

In a perfect world I wish this could be addressed as I have said so many times that Twitter is toxic. Sadly, I just don’t see how this could possibly be done.