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Freeman [soylentnews.org] writes:

Toxic image board 4chan has managed to stay online for the past seven years—amid boycotts and advertiser flight, after being implicated in several mass shootings, even as it was identified as a source of the conspiracy theories that inspired the January 6 insurrection—thanks, in part, to a $2.4 million investment from a major Japanese toy company.

A partnership agreement, obtained exclusively by WIRED, shows not only how current site owner Hiroyuki Nishimura acquired the far-right message board but also how Japanese industry helped finance the deal.
[...]
In recent years, Good Smile has branched out into content creation, working with various animation and film studios, has opened online wholesale companies in China and elsewhere, and has even sponsored a Super GT racing team.

In 2021, former employees of Good Smile’s Los Angeles office—embroiled in a legal dispute about the future of their employment—countersued the company. In legal filings, they allege Good Smile was responsible for the distribution of potentially obscene sexually explicit anime products and merchandise ("lolicon") and that it, unbeknownst to its family-friendly corporate partners, was funding 4chan.

The accusations were picked up in The Ankler [theankler.com] and The Hollywood Reporter [hollywoodreporter.com], which cited a Good Smile representative admitting a passive investment in 4chan. The lawsuit was settled out of court, and the allegations were never proven.

Last year, WIRED obtained documents detailing a nondisclosure agreement [wired.com] involving Nishimura, Good Smile, and Tokyo-based telecommunications firm Dwango. The three parties, the document said, were in talks to acquire 4chan. In December, The New York Times confirmed that Nishimura purchased 4chan with funding from three unnamed Japanese partners [nytimes.com].

When asked about Good Smile’s involvement in 4chan last December in an interview with publisher Shueisha, Nishimura confirmed the relationship [shueisha.online]. He and Good Smile’s president, Takanori Aki, had met at an anime convention and become friends, Nishimura said. “However, Good Smile Company is in the process of leaving.”

Good Smile did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment.
[...]
The European Union’s Digital Services Act aims to fine sites that host antisemitism [cyberwell.org], in addition to other types of hate. Given 4chan’s rampant hate speech, it’s a move that could hit them particularly hard. But any action against 4chan requires, or is at least enormously helped by, knowing who actually owns and runs the site. Now that 4chan’s ownership and funding is in the public record, the temperature may start to increase on Nishimura.

“I think Mr. Kawakami’s description of Mr. Nishimura is fair and quite accurate,” Sei says. “Kawakami described Nishimura as a child who tears the legs off from a bug. And that he enjoys that.”

This story originally appeared on wired.com [wired.com].

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