Japan assessing impact of tougher penalties for insults

The Justice Ministry is assessing through an expert panel the impact of tougher penalties for the crime of insult three years after their enforcement through a penal code revision.

The ministry has released information about 173 cases with guilty verdicts that became final between July 2022, when the revision came into force, and June this year.

While some victims positively evaluate the tougher penalties, others say, “Slander and defamation do not stop.”

In 82% of the cases related to the internet, offenders were punished with fines, while the share was 47% for cases not linked to the internet, according to the ministry.

An individual who on social media posted a picture of a victim and said the person’s looks were monstrous was fined ¥300,000. Another perpetrator was fined ¥100,000 for insulting a person on a train, saying: “You’re young and bald. Your life is over.”

Opinions are divided among victims.

“There are some deterring effects,” said Kyoko Kimura, 48, the mother of Hana Kimura, who died by suicide at age 22 in 2020 following a flood of defamatory comments on social media.

Takuya Matsunaga, 39, whose wife and daughter were killed by a runaway car in Tokyo’s Ikebukuro district in 2019, questioned the effects.

“Neither the punishments nor measures to prevent a second offense are enough,” he said.

The offense of insult is defined as an act of insulting another person in public. The current penalties are an imprisonment of up to one year or a fine of up to ¥300,000, stricter than the previous punishments of less than 30 days of detention or a fine of up to ¥10,000.

The ministry will decide whether to make further changes, based on the outcome of the panel’s discussions.