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The story
On the 14th, author Hirotada Ototake posted on X about the structure of online harassment, describing it as “a hell-like world where thousands, tens of thousands of people are rubbing their hands together, thinking, ‘Alright, who should we go after next?’” The remark was reported by Sports Nippon, and a thread went up on 5ch’s Entertainment/Sports News+ board. In the thread, some said “if you don’t want to get bashed, just quit social media,” while others pointed to his own past behavior, asking “didn’t he himself once try to turn a restaurant employee into an online target?” — opinions on the remark were split.
Hirotada Ototake on the “Hell-Like World”: “Tens of Thousands of People Thinking, ‘Alright, Who’s Next?’” – Sports Nippon
September 14, 2026, 20:48 — Sports Nippon Annex Reporting Team
Author Hirotada Ototake (50) updated his X (formerly Twitter) account on the 14th, addressing a “hell-like world.”
Source: sponichi.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
He already said that when he lost the special election for the House of Representatives
Oh yeah, that.
Sounds like the Italian restaurant got hammered pretty hard too.
Ototake got hit back too though (>д<)
if you're not trying to boost your own name recognition to earn a living or more off it,
you won't become a target.
So no matter how much off-base stuff you shout,
ordinary people won't sympathize at all.
Give up on that — ordinary people aren't dumb enough to be fooled
You people have just been making a living off exploiting others' weak spots, haven't you
you're not new to this
just my two cents, no offense
fully in victim-complex mode
YouTube, X, wherever —
it's nothing but people endlessly bashing something
creepy comments all over the place
enough to make you think it's a mental illness
Makes you wonder about the intelligence of people who argue like this
is one to talk ("funnels" — a Gundam reference used as slang for siccing your followers on a target)
Smiley-san: "What's wrong? Want to talk about it?" (a nod to the famous "Smiley" suicide-prevention ad character's catchphrase)
You walked into the hellish world yourself — what are you even talking about, idiot
probably in the millions
I think their brains are shrinking
I think that's very Japanese, in a good way
The rest of the world is pretty similar
Back in the day people used to say "wow, Korea's public morals are really something" when celebrities there got bashed to the point of suicide, but Japan has completely followed suit now.
It's a shame
whatever you post
can be used
to identify you
Would be funny if some YouTuber
got everyone's identity disclosed
and published everyone's name, age, and occupation
Even without doing anything bad, a single hidden-camera shot could still take you down, I'd think
Background and Key Points of This Story
Ototake is a figure who has repeatedly sparked debate on social media before, over incidents involving reasonable accommodation for people with disabilities and his run for political office. This latest post appears to be him voicing his feelings as someone on the receiving end of online abuse, but the thread’s reaction was split because Ototake himself reportedly once called for criticism of a specific restaurant on social media — many commenters felt the contradiction in “the one who attacked is now claiming to be the victim.” On the legal side, measures against online harassment have advanced, such as the 2022 toughening of penalties for the crime of insult, but the cost of identifying and prosecuting each individual anonymous post remains high, and the argument that this isn’t yet functioning as enough of a deterrent carries some weight. In the thread, opinions about Ototake personally and opinions about the structure of social media pile-ons in general got mixed together, which is part of why the discussion talked past itself.
*This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Entertainment/Sports News+) thread “Hirotada Ototake on the “Hell-Like World”: “Tens of Thousands of People Thinking, ‘Alright, Who’s Next?’”“.
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