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The story
Shinji Ishimaru (44), former leader of the regional party “Saisei no Michi” (“Path to Rebirth”), announced on his X account on the 9th, in a post titled “An important announcement,” that he will now deal strictly with slander and defamation directed at him on social media. He said that until now he had refrained from responding to individual posts out of respect for freedom of expression, but changed his stance after noticing an uptick in malicious posts. On the 5ch thread, commenters looked back on Ishimaru’s recent history — including how, after gaining substantial support in the Tokyo gubernatorial election, he founded a political party but failed to get a single candidate elected, plus a lawsuit over unpaid election poster fees — with opinions on the man himself split between praise and criticism.
10/11 (Sun) 15:11
Shinji Ishimaru (44), former leader of the regional party “Saisei no Michi,” updated his X (formerly Twitter) account on the 9th with a post titled “An important announcement.”
Ishimaru opened with, “Out of the blue, I have an important announcement for everyone,” before issuing this statement: “Until now, out of respect for freedom of expression, I have in principle refrained from responding individually to various opinions and criticisms on social media and elsewhere. However, as malicious posts have become increasingly noticeable in the public discourse, I’ve come to feel the need to once again put a stop to this verbal violence, and have decided to deal strictly with any slander or defamation concerning me on social media and elsewhere going forward.”
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
Yeah, haven't heard that name in a while
No — it's: he gets to criticize people, but won't accept being slandered himself.
and that's not slander?
Probably "Detective Ishimaru" or something
For someone who's so quick to criticize everyone else, he sure doesn't like being criticized himself.
Did you forget what a mess he made of himself in that trial?
Those short clips of city council sessions going around back then just looked like nitpicking over trivial stuff, with nothing substantive ever actually moving forward.
Guess losing the election didn't make him a has-been after all
I finally got sick of Takahashi's shtick, unfollowed it, and took it out of my recommendations.
Then he started a party, ran a decent number of candidates, and didn't get a single one elected — I saw a clip where Konishi half-mockingly razzed him about it and he completely lost his temper.
Getting ribbed like that would piss anyone off, fair enough.
It's basically nostalgia bait at this point
Hope he's careful not to fall for a wire-transfer scam.
There's got to be a limit to this, surely
He's a TV personality now, isn't he?
Re: #72
Anyway, you two are now report-candidates
Background and Key Points of This Story
Ishimaru drew attention by finishing a strong second in the 2024 Tokyo gubernatorial election, then went on to found the party “Saisei no Michi,” fielding numerous candidates in races such as the Tokyo assembly election — none of whom won. It has also previously been reported that he was sued and lost a case over unpaid production costs for election posters, billed to a company connected to his younger sister. Because this new “strict crackdown on slander and defamation” policy comes after that string of events and amid an otherwise lackluster electoral record, the thread also raised questions about the fairness of his distinction — “I get to criticize others, but won’t accept slander against myself” — as well as about his current standing more broadly. While cracking down on slander and defamation is a reasonable stance on its own, exactly where “criticism” ends and “slander” begins is a line readers tend to draw differently, and notably, the comments in the thread itself were far from unanimous on how to judge it.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Geinou/Sports News+) thread “Shinji Ishimaru posts “important announcement,” says he will “deal strictly with slander and defamation concerning me on social media”.”
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