Yasunori Okadome last month suspended publication of his profitable monthly gossip magazine Uwasa-no-shinso (The Truth Behind Rumors), due to fears that a lawsuit could put him out of business for good.

Okadome, 56, said the soaring compensation payouts awarded by courts in privacy- or defamation-related damages suits in recent years have prompted him to step away from the 25-year-old scandal rag, which targeted politicians, elite bureaucrats and celebrities, and had a circulation of 65,000.

He also cited the recent enactment of a privacy-protection law, which he said is a veiled government attempt to suppress magazine journalism.