A Tokyo court has ordered a publisher to suspend publication of a best-selling nonfiction book detailing links between the conservative Japan Conference (Nippon Kaigi) lobby and a religious group, saying it contains defamatory information.
Published last year, "Nippon Kaigi no Kenkyu" ("A Study on the Japan Conference,") written in Japanese by Tamotsu Sugano, claims the lobby has influence on the government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and criticizes his administration's drive to revise the war-renouncing Constitution.
The decision Friday by the Tokyo District Court came after a man in his 70s who is mentioned in the book sued for libel and demanded that Fusosha Publishing Inc. suspend sales.