The Tokyo District Court on Thursday issued an injunction ordering Google Inc. to remove some Internet search results revealing the name of a man who claims his privacy rights have been infringed upon due to articles hinting he may have been involved in a crime in the past, according to a document obtained by Kyodo News.
Some of the results "infringe personal rights," Judge Nobuyuki Seki said in the document. "Google, which manages the (Google) search engine, has the obligation to delete them."
It is likely the first legal decision in Japan ordering the operator of a search engine to remove search results, according to the man's lawyer.