A man in Shiga Prefecture wasn’t too happy when a police officer told him off – so he tried to have the public servant arrested.
The incident happened last September. The 50-something on-duty assistant inspector warned a man not to cross the street against a red light. The guy did anyway.
When the cop asked him why he crossed, the guy said, “‘Cause I wanted to.” To which the cop responded, “Whatever, do what you want. Fucking moron [バカたれ; bakatare].”
The man didn’t take too kindly to that. A few days later, says Yomiuri Shimbun, he filed a criminal charge of defamation against the officer.
There are two different defamation laws in Japan. The man filed charges under the 侮辱罪 (bujokuzai) law, which forbids insulting a person’s dignity in public with general derogatory statements. While the primary law on defamation (名誉棄損; meiyokison) is concerned with whether a statement is true or false (e.g., “He cheats on his taxes”), bujokuzai statements are basically insulting opinions.
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A criminal charge of bujokuzai can carry up to one year in jail and a 300,000 yen (USD $1,893) fine. These punishments were raised in 2022 in reaction to the suicide of pro wrestler Kimura Hana after she suffered horrendous abuse online.
Fortunately for the officer in this case, prosecutors have decided not to press charges. His supervisors let him off with a warning.
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