A dispute has erupted over the design of a fire pit that comedian Hiroshi commissioned, with outdoor gear manufacturer “Warai’s” announcing it would file a police report over what it calls reputational damage. The thread is split over whether the criticism should be directed at Hiroshi himself or at the devoted fans who slandered the company in his defense, and it also sparked legal debate over design rights and the requirements for establishing defamation.
Wed, Aug 26, 16:25
Outdoor gear manufacturer “Warai’s” updated its X account on the 26th, announcing it would file a police report in connection with its dispute with comedian Hiroshi.
Hiroshi, a pioneer of the “solo camping” boom, posted on X on the 17th of this month that he’d run into trouble: “I commissioned an original fire pit. I presented the specific shape I wanted made. The company I commissioned began production. Partway through making it, the manufacturer said it was going to start selling the same design itself.”
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
Leave your words of condolence.
But the one thing Hiroshi did succeed at was turning everything he'd built up into kindling, and using it as fuel to complete a magnificent fire pit that's been blazing away for days now — the fire pit known as Hiroshi. 😭🙏🏻
Obviously not, this is a separate matter.
The "waited over a week with no response" part is probably about people on Hiroshi's side, so they might be filing against the ringleaders who stirred it all up too.
So their in-house legal team decided they can't win against Hiroshi himself. The targets are just the idiots who got carried away and piled on.
Doesn't matter who actually came up with the idea.
Is this even patentable content? Feels more like utility-model territory. And if they never registered one, anyone's free to make and sell similar products.
On X it's all criticism of the manufacturer.
Are there a bunch of shills on 5ch?
On Twitter too, criticism of Hiroshi is the majority view.
On my X feed, Hiroshi-bashing is overwhelming, so that's just the algorithm for you.
Why not consider that X might just have a lot of fan brigading going on (ファンネル, "funnel" — slang, from Gundam remote weapons, for fans mass-attacking on someone's behalf)?
They've already filed a police report, you know.
You've never bought anything from them even once lol
You're amazing. MVP of the thread today.
The No. 164 portable camping fire extinguisher isn't bad lol
Something feels off here — like they're deliberately dodging the real issue.
That's one thing, this is another.
They need to gather evidence of actual damages first.
Then they can get the police moving with a police report plus a criminal complaint.
The manufacturer's just going to end up with a negative image that never goes away.
Even though not apologizing could turn this into a criminal case?
Well, the moment someone's indicted for insult (侮辱罪), given how strict things are about compliance these days, that's it — they'll get dropped from shows and forced into self-restraint.
This isn't about suing Hiroshi — it's the idiot fans and the people who posted slander who are getting sued.
Probably. I think the ones getting sued are the people who slandered Warai's while trying to defend Hiroshi.
No, they suffered reputational damage because of Hiroshi's post, so it has to be against Hiroshi.
Hard to say. Since Hiroshi doesn't really make his living off TV anymore, wouldn't this barely affect him?
Going by what both sides are saying, it looks like a six-of-one situation.
Though the manufacturer's negative image is probably beyond saving at this point.
Like this guy, for instance 👉 Re: #125
m9(^д^) [mocking point-and-laugh emoticon] There's no running from this.
・"Why did they develop it without permission when there was no contact?"
・"They're saying they improved it and released it, but isn't that basically an admission?"
Phrasing like this falls close to what's classified as "opinion/commentary."
It would likely be treated as "criticism based on the publicly disclosed facts," making it unlikely a disclosure request would be granted.
By contrast, definitive factual assertions like:
・"Company X committed a crime"
・"Company X is a scam company"
・"Company X stole intellectual property"
would make a disclosure request much more likely to succeed.
The people who were attacking Hiroshi are screwed, aren't they?
If anything, when it comes to the 5ch threads, it's basically nothing but posts that would get you sued by Hiroshi for defamation if he wanted to.
Unless Hiroshi holds the design rights or they signed a contract to that effect, the manufacturer should be free to do as it likes.
It wasn't even really an idea, more like a request/wish-list level thing.
Calling that "stolen" is a stretch lol
Total silence — he's just posting his own videos and sponsor promos like nothing happened.
Background and Key Points
Hiroshi (real name Hiroshi Shinagawa) built his post-manzai second career as Japan’s most visible face of “solo camping” (ソロキャンプ), turning a one-man tent-and-fire lifestyle into a YouTube and merchandising business; this dispute is significant precisely because his credibility as a gear-endorsing outdoorsman is the asset at stake. 5ch (formerly 2channel) is Japan’s largest anonymous forum, and threads like this one compile reactions to a breaking news story — here, an Yahoo News piece about outdoor brand “Warai’s” announcing on X that it would file a police report (被害届) over reputational damage. Readers should also know Japan’s insult law (侮辱罪) was tightened in 2022, making online pile-ons a real criminal-liability risk, and that “disclosure of sender information” requests (発信者情報開示請求) — used to unmask anonymous posters — succeed far more easily against flat factual accusations (“they committed a crime,” “they stole IP”) than against hedged opinion (“it’s odd they started production without a contract”).
The thread’s actual fault line isn’t Hiroshi-vs-Warai’s — nearly everyone agrees the report targets overzealous fans and posters who slandered the company defending him, not Hiroshi personally. The disagreement is over blame allocation: some posters think going after fans while sparing Hiroshi is legally convenient but morally dodges the real instigator; others insist reputational harm flows from Hiroshi’s original post, so he bears responsibility regardless of who typed the insults.
What outsiders likely miss: no contract or design registration existed between Hiroshi and Warai’s — he reportedly only requested a shape, not a finished design — meaning Japan’s utility-model (実用新案) framework, not patent law, governs whether copying is even actionable, and unregistered ideas generally aren’t protected at all.
*This article is compiled as an excerpt and summary of the 5ch (Entertainment/Sports News+) thread “Outdoor Gear Manufacturer in Trouble with Hiroshi Reveals Reputational Damage: “We’ve Decided to File a Police Report”.”
