“No other trial might have a greater impact on us both domestically and internationally than this one, inspite of its ‘tiny’ cause of appeal—just one retweet. It’s an important case crossing between the problems of SLAPP suits and social media.
※Attorney Toru Hashimoto, is former governor of Osaka Prefecture and former mayor of Osaka City. He was also representative of the Osaka Restoration Association, and is now a legal adviser for the association.
He is known to have filed many defamation lawsuits against publishers and writers. His messages in Japanese can be read on his Twitter(@hashimoto_lo).
In October last year, Iwakami retweeted a tweet which got his attention on his Twitter time-line, with no comment of his own attached. And then, more than a month later, in December, Iwakami got unexpectedly sued by Mr. Toru Hashimoto, an attorney and former governor of Osaka Prefecture in Japan, for defamation. Iwakami subsequently held a press conference for overseas media and spoke as noted above.
The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan (FCCJ) located in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo, hosted a press conference with Yasumi Iwakami, IWJ president and journalist, which started at 15:00 on Feb. 2, 2018, where Iwakami discussed the “damages claim case filed against him for alleged defamation committed by his retweet.” Attorneys Mr. Kazuyuki Azusawa and Mr. Hitone Saka also joined the conference. This was a third conference on the topic, following the conferences at the Courtroom Reporters’ Association in Tokyo and the Free Press Association of Japan, both held on Jan. 22, 2018.
▲Photo taken during the press conference at the FCCJ
- THE FIRST PRESS CONFERENCE ON THE SLAPP SUIT FILED BY MR. TORU HASHIMOTO: IWJ president Yasumi Iwakami clearly states his intent to respond to the action to protect the public space of speech on the Internet. Jan. 22, 2018.
- THE SECOND PRESS CONFERENCE AT THE FREE PRESS ASSOCIATION OF JAPAN: “This is a misuse of the right of appeal!”—Ex-governor of Osaka Toru Hashimoto sues IWJ Yasumi Iwakami over no more than an already-deleted retweet. “It is plainly a challenge to the freedom of speech!” Jan. 22, 2018.
Iwakami, after pointing out that the case concerns the freedom of communication, expressed fear that every citizen will be deprived of the freedom of opinion and freedom of presenting issues, and said clearly that it was deplorable for Mr. Hashimoto to sue him without any prior talks between the two.
On the social media Twitter, you are free to retweet to present all sorts of topics, such as urgent ones or ones for preventive measures. It should also be noted that your retweets do not necessarily mean that you have agreed to the contents of the original tweets.
“You can do a lot with tweeting and retweeting. If you don’t like what is said in tweets or if you have different information, you can communicate and discuss it with others on the Internet. You could correct wrong information in no time. These interactions are very important,” said Iwakami. “We should never allow some intimidating lawsuit to shrink this public space of speech.”
Attorney Saka explained the case. “I think this lawsuit is a SLAPP litigation aiming to exhaust Mr. Iwakami both financially and physically. Since the case had been filed in Osaka (meaning we will have to go there whenever we need to appear in court), we have filed a petition for transfer to Tokyo to secure the equity between the two parties.”
Iwakami stated, “In current Japan, there has been little move to establish anti-SLAPP law. We need to have widespread discussions on the issue of SLAPP. I myself am going to re-raise it as a matter of public interest.”
