A Kawasaki court has ordered a 66-year-old man to pay compensation and remove defamatory remarks from his blog that were targeted at a teenage Korean resident in greater Tokyo, lawyers representing the boy said Wednesday.
At a news conference held in Tokyo, the attorneys involved in the case called for the government to implement stricter regulations to curb online hate speech and protect potential victims.
The teenager became the target of hate speech in January last year after attending a music event in Kawasaki, where he went to junior high school. His name was later published in a newspaper article about the event on Jan. 22. The same day, his name also appeared on an anonymous blog titled "Virulent Alien Parasites Named Zainichi," in which abusive comments about the boy's ethnicity were written.