Japanese-Korean Youth Who Wrote Hate Post Saying "Get Lost in Japan" Sent to Prosecutors

Hate Posts Against Zainichi Korean Human Rights Activist
Sent Without Detention on the 17th for Defamation Charges

A teenage Japanese boy who posted hateful messages targeting Korean residents in Japan on an internet bulletin board has reportedly been sent to the prosecutors.

Kyodo News reported on the 17th that the Kanagawa Prefectural Police sent the teenage boy residing in Chiba Prefecture to the prosecutors without detention on charges of insult.

The boy wrote a hateful post titled "Get out of Japan," targeting Choi Kang-ija, a third-generation Korean resident in Japan, on an internet bulletin board at the end of February.

It is known that the boy's post included about 200 discriminatory words listed as examples.

In response, Choi stated regarding this incident, "To improve the environment where youths become perpetrators of hate crimes, laws prohibiting discrimination on the internet must be established."

Third-generation Korean-Japanese Choi Kang-ija [Photo by Yonhap News]

Choi, who works at the multicultural comprehensive education facility Fureaikan, was the recipient of the 2020 Tokyo Bar Association Human Rights Award, which honors individuals who have worked to protect human rights. At that time, the Tokyo Bar Association praised Choi for "publicly revealing his name and fighting devotedly against discrimination such as hate speech (public expressions of discrimination and hatred against specific groups)."

The Tokyo Bar Association particularly valued his testimony as a witness before the House of Councillors' Judicial Affairs Committee in March 2016 to help eradicate anti-Korean demonstrations. They regarded his input as instrumental in the enactment of the law to suppress anti-Korean demonstrations, officially titled the "Act on Promotion of Measures to Eliminate Unjust Discriminatory Speech and Behavior against People Originating from Outside Japan."

Furthermore, Kyodo News introduced that changes such as Kawasaki City, where many Korean residents live, creating an ordinance last December to punish those who hold anti-Korean demonstrations for the first time in Japan, also began through Choi's efforts.