from the remember-the-compliments-and-forget-the-insults dept.
The new law goes into effect Thursday:
Posting "online insults" will be punishable by up to a year in prison time in Japan starting Thursday, when a new law passed earlier this summer will go into effect.
People convicted of online insults can also be fined up to 300,000 yen (just over $2,200). Previously, the punishment was fewer than 30 days in prison and up to 10,000 yen ($75).
The law will be reexamined in three years to determine if it's impacting freedom of expression — a concern raised by critics of the bill. Proponents said it was necessary to slow cyberbullying in the country.
The issue of online harassment has gained prominence in the past few years, with growing calls for anti-cyberbullying laws after the death of professional wrestler and reality television star Hana Kimura:
Kimura, 22, who was known for her role in the Netflix show "Terrace House," died by suicide in 2020. The news triggered grief and shock nationwide, with many pointing to online abuse she had received from social media users in the months leading up to her death.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by DannyB on Friday July 08 2022, @05:31PM (6 children)
Maybe people should have a bit thicker skin.
Don't be so concerned with what other people think of you.
If you do good things and accomplish things, other people will compliment you about it. Listen to them.
The server will be down for replacement of vacuum tubes, belts, worn parts and lubrication of gears and bearings.
(Score: 2) by crafoo on Friday July 08 2022, @06:44PM
External validation leads to misery and poor life outcomes.
Set goals, plan small, concrete steps to achieve your goals. Be proud of your accomplishments, your drive and dedication, the effort you put out, and the good things you were able to do. If people give you compliments or scream at you and call you names, doesn't matter. What other people think does not matter, at all.
(Score: 4, Touché) by turgid on Friday July 08 2022, @08:56PM (1 child)
That's good advice, but human frailties being what they are, people aren't always 100% robust. Mental health is a delicate thing.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 09 2022, @01:09AM
That's also true, but I frankly don't think it's other people's responsibility to know your mental health state. Don't get me wrong: cyberbullying (and real-life bullying) are serious and real issues. And I assume Japan already has laws dealing with harassment, which usually implies persistent negative actions against someone.
BUT, if we're not talking about a pattern of bullying or harassment -- if we're just talking about a one-off insult, should we really be involving courts and jail? In that case, shouldn't the answer -- as GP said -- to encourage people to "grow thicker skin," as that will actually benefit most people?
The issue for most people doesn't begin as a mental health issue. It begins with negative comments that people choose to emphasize. And I get it -- it's hard. I've been an educator for a large part of my career, and I'd get evaluations from students. No matter whether I was competent and nice and responsive, there's always going to a few comments that are negative if not downright nasty for no apparent reason. And it's hard to ignore them. It's hard to look at them. For a couple years, I actually stopped looking at the teaching evaluations, because even though 90% of them would be positive (or at least reasonably good), I'd spend most of my time obsessing about those few bad comments. Most of which were rarely constructive... as I said, sometimes just downright mean.
But should we put students in jail for them?
No. Here's the thing: if you interact online in a public way or public forum, you need to be prepared for public feedback. And there will always be trolls and flamers and nasty people. If you don't want that, don't participate in public forums. Otherwise, if I post a picture on a social media site publicly saying, "Wow, look at my new hair!" it's like putting out an anonymous suggestion box at your high school after making an announcement in front of the whole school. You can bet you'll get a few pranks, a few nasty remarks, and all sorts of idiocy. But you choose to put yourself out there like that.
Again, I am NOT excusing harassment, which is different. A personal grudge and pattern of harassing behavior is often a different thing. But a one-off negative remark is different.
One might argue that celebrities can't "opt out" in this fashion. Even if they don't participate in social media, the internet will still talk about them. But it's what you choose to read and how you engage, too. If I were famous, I probably would stay even more off the internet than I already do. Because I know that I'm the type of person to obsess about the negatives -- many people will do that. So you do have choices: you can often remove yourself from situations.
In the past, bullying and harassment were not taken seriously enough. Now the pendulum has swung far the other way, where we expect everyone to tip-toe around everyone else and try never to say something that might inadvertently make anyone uncomfortable. And if you don't conform to this, or you don't own up when someone is offended (maybe not even for themselves, but being offended on behalf of some imaginary third-party who might find such a thing insulting or offensive), then you are canceled. Or apparently maybe put in jail in Japan. Some might say I'm being dramatic, that judges would be more interested in "clear offensiveness or insults," rather than some subjective thing. But this law appears to be vague enough that we really don't know what the boundaries are.
In any case, mental health may be delicate for some people. Which means they need to to care of themselves. They need to choose strategies that will mitigate and limit their exposure to things that could hurt them. We should all be kinder to each other, but again, it's also not the responsibility of every person to be aware of every potential fragility of another person. "Getting thicker skin" may not always be possible for everyone. But wallowing in negative emotions is also often partly a choice. Encouraging people to blame others or seek legal action for minor verbal scuffles is certainly not the best answer.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by DannyB on Friday July 08 2022, @05:32PM (10 children)
Everyone in Japan will become very polite.
Falsely polite.
So much so that nobody will believe nice things people say about them.
The server will be down for replacement of vacuum tubes, belts, worn parts and lubrication of gears and bearings.
(Score: 4, Touché) by Opportunist on Friday July 08 2022, @05:58PM
So Japan online will be a perfect mirror of Japan offline.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 08 2022, @06:49PM (3 children)
Cause the Greeters at Walmart really do care about you and wish you had a nice day, like all the customer service people. It's all fake and annoying in that regard.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 08 2022, @06:56PM (2 children)
You sound like a blast to be around.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by NPC-131072 on Friday July 08 2022, @07:39PM
Shinzo Abe's infamous last words?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Opportunist on Saturday July 09 2022, @07:08AM
I like my company the way I like my sex. If you're faking it, I can do without you and get the same enjoyment out of it.
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Friday July 08 2022, @07:19PM (3 children)
People will invent new and subtler ways of insulting people, with plausible deniability.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Saturday July 09 2022, @07:14AM (2 children)
So instead of telling someone his face looks like an ass, just ask them next time when they have a coffee whether they enjoy their enema.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Saturday July 09 2022, @03:52PM (1 child)
Is an insult count the same, though, if the insulted party misses the insult entirely?
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Tuesday July 12 2022, @09:19PM
I dunno that, but it sure takes the fun out of it entirely. It's no fun making fun of someone too stupid to get it.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Friday July 08 2022, @09:12PM
So that manner of speech is sinusoidal [wiktionary.org], then.
(Score: 4, Funny) by kazzie on Friday July 08 2022, @05:46PM (2 children)
I parsed the title as "Japan to Start Jailing People Online for Insults" and started wondering if it involved fitting locks to walled gardens.
(Score: 5, Funny) by NPC-131072 on Friday July 08 2022, @07:37PM (1 child)
Just Japanese gardens -- a Bonsai of the vanities.
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Saturday July 09 2022, @07:12AM
With accurately aligned stones, arranged by the rules of Feng Shui, along with a perfectly level and raked sand pit next to it.
You could of course leave through it, but you would certainly destroy the arrangement. Could you live with that knowledge? Could you?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 08 2022, @06:19PM (2 children)
What will be the sentence for "ignorant moron"? Will there be mitigation if it is true and can be proven?
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 08 2022, @08:57PM (1 child)
janrinok has lobbied for the "Runaway1956" special exemption. No insults, even if obviously true, relevant, and necessary, of the Runaway. Not even publicly available information.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by janrinok on Saturday July 09 2022, @03:31AM
Agreed - I do not accept doxing. Even if you have already published the same information previously, or gathered it together from other sources.
[nostyle RIP 06 May 2025]
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 08 2022, @07:18PM
Guess I know where my next vacation isn't going to be.
(Score: 2) by SomeGuy on Friday July 08 2022, @07:53PM
Pixel dicks.
(Score: 2) by Hartree on Friday July 08 2022, @09:08PM (1 child)
So, you're saying if I post that Tetsuya Yamagami is a murderous lunatic, I could be jailed for it if I'm in Japan?
Does a court then decide if the person insulted indeed IS a murderous lunatic? And does that make any difference?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 08 2022, @10:23PM
Clever! For any Americans who didn't get the joke, Tetsuya Yamagami is the man who shot Japan's former prime minister today. Unlike in the USA, where it's considered a normal part of the political process and protected by the 2nd Amendment, in Japan politicians don't normally get shot which increases the likelihood that he actually was a murderous lunatic. Oh, and Japan is an island nation in the Pacific Ocean. Back to your Big Macs now.
(Score: 0, Troll) by stretch611 on Saturday July 09 2022, @01:35AM (1 child)
Look at my a$$hole... See the hemorrhoid on it? that hemorrhoid has more intelligence than all your collective politicians that voted for this law.
Is that an insult... yes, but probably more of an insult to my hemorrhoid for being compared to you asshats.
Oh, I'm sorry, does this make you feel bad??? It should. Now please commit suicide so that your people can replace you with a better politician.
If however, they get a worse politician than you, please have them rinse and repeat as necessary until the people have someone worthy.
Now, if it was only this easy to get rid of the asshats we call politicians here in the US.
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 09 2022, @02:34AM
Funny, but the Japanese slur for Americans is "red-assholed monkeys". Maybe you should seek medical attention?
(Score: 3, Touché) by jb on Saturday July 09 2022, @05:31AM
Since the very act of passing a law that prohibits free speech is in itself a massive insult against every single citizen of Japan and since presumably in Japan (as in most countries) new laws get published online...
...can we now look forward to the entire Japanese parliament being sent to jail for passing the very law under which they now must be charged?
Would certainly be poetic justice!
(Score: 4, Informative) by Phoenix666 on Saturday July 09 2022, @04:03PM
The funny thing about insults in Japan is that they really tend to not be overt. Japanese don't hurl around "fuck you, motherfucker" and the like the way other peoples do. Insults tend to be subtle and oblique, such as giving all of your dinner guests good china except the one guy you hate, whom you give a cracked bowl. That, I imagine, would make it particularly difficult to police online without destroying discourse entirely.
(However, I lived and worked in Japan before there were Internet discussion forums so maybe somebody can chime in if it's entirely different online now.)
Washington DC delenda est.