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Yomiuri Shimbun
March 26, 1998
Court Rules Plaintiff Libeled
On March 26, the Supreme Court, chaired by Chief Justice Mitsuo Saito, ordered Shinchosha Co., Ltd. To pay 1.1 million yen in damages to Mr. Nobuyoki Shirayama, who claimed that he was libeled by an articled published by Shukan Shincho, owned by Shinchosha. The Supreme Court upheld the verdicts of the District and High Courts, rejecting Shinchosha’s final appeal.
At issue was a Sept. 1, 1994 article that Shukan Shincho ran under the headline, “Soka Gakkai Leader Kills Taiseki-ji Priest in Car Crash.” It referred to a July 1994 automobile accident that took place a Hokkaido in which a Nichiren Shoshu priest died in an automobile accident when his passenger car collided with a truck operated by the plaintiff. The Sapporo District and High Court had previously validated the justice of the libel suit, both courts ruling that “the article as well as its headline claim the car accident transpired out of the dispute between the Soka Gakkai and Nichiren Shoshu, and leaves the impression as though the plaintiff was involved in its occurrence.”
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