Rurei Miura Loses Suit in Court Over SNS Comments…Former TV Asahi Announcer Who Sued Him Was Confused by “Mr. Miura’s Quirks”.

Rurei Miura, an international political scientist who appeared on various TV programs as a commentator. On March 22, the plaintiff, Kyosuke Nishiwaki, a former TV announcer for Asahi Television, won a lawsuit against Rirei Miura, claiming that her comments on SNS constituted an illegal act and demanding payment of 3 million yen in damages (compensation). Mr. Miura was ordered to pay 300,000 yen in damages.

The lawsuit was brought in response to an article in a weekly magazine in ’19 about the marital and heterosexual relationship of Yuko Murakami, a TV Asahi journalist and Nishiwaki’s ex-wife, and to an article in the same magazine that forced Murakami to cancel her appearance as an MC for “Live TV till Morning! and TV Asahi’s decision to suspend Ms. Murakami’s appearance as MC in response to the article. At the time, Mr. Miura tweeted the following

It is a mistake to make allegations of adultery against someone who has been living apart for years, has been in divorce proceedings, and has a divorce settlement pending.

The Weekly Post knew that Ms. Murakami’s partner was neither in bankruptcy nor in the midst of divorce proceedings, and they dared to hide it and write about it as if it were adultery.

The trial court ruled that the tweets were inaccurate and also violated the privacy of Ms. Nishiwaki and her husband, and demanded that they pay 3 million yen in damages (compensation). On November 15, 2022, Mr. Miura was ordered by the first trial court to pay 300,000 yen and post an apology advertisement. The judgment became final on the 22nd of this month.

We interviewed Ms. Nishiwaki, the plaintiff, about the trial.

“In her position as an expert and scholar, she repeatedly made statements that infringed on people’s rights. If you feel the responsibility of speaking publicly as an intellectual, you would know that such statements should not be made. I am not saying that she should not appear on TV or in other media in the future, but I do hope that she will understand her position properly before making such statements.”

During the trial, Mr. Nishiwaki experienced difficulties because of Mr. Miura’s certain habits. Mr. Nishiwaki continued.

“The documents he prepared for the trial were written in a very difficult style, and the meaning of the idioms used in the documents did not match the sentences. In addition to that, the trial is about invasion of privacy, but there were many instances where it was not clear what they were trying to argue, such as when they talked about equal rights for men and women.”

On March 7, her husband, Kiyoshi Miura, 43, head of investment company Tribay Capital, was arrested on suspicion of embezzling 430 million yen in business. The loss of the lawsuit was truly a bee sting.