" Top court orders company to pay damages for ‘hate speech’" 9 September 2022

The Supreme Court on 8 Sept. upheld a ruling ordering a real estate company and its chairman to pay damages to an ethnic Korean woman over the distribution of “hate speech” documents to employees.

Fuji Corp., a company listed on the prime section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, and its chairman, Mitsuo Imai, must pay a total of 1.32 million yen ($9,200) to the plaintiff for the mental anguish she suffered at her workplace.

They were also ordered to stop distributing such documents.

“I hope (the company) will apologize and create an environment in which healthy relationships can be restored at the workplace,” the woman said after the top court rejected the company’s appeal.

The woman has been working part time at the real estate firm since 2002.

Since 2013, the company has repeatedly distributed to its workers copies of online and magazine articles that insulted and slandered people from South Korea and China.

After the woman filed the lawsuit, the company distributed handouts featuring employees’ opinions condemning her legal action.

The Osaka High Court ruled in November last year that the documents contained discriminatory expressions that were equivalent to hate speech.

“The distribution at the workplace cannot be justified by any reason,” the high court ruled.

The court also criticized the company’s handling of the issue, saying the documents “fostered feelings that ‘all Koreans are liars,’ and created a hotbed for discriminatory words and actions.”

[...]