High School YouTuber Yutabon Withdraws Defamation Lawsuit Over Mistaken Identity

“Little brat” “I hope you get into an accident”

High school YouTuber Yutabon (15) experienced a “mishap.”

At the end of June, a thick envelope marked “special delivery” from the court was unexpectedly delivered to the home of a person living in Tochigi Prefecture, referred to here as Honma. Inside, there was a complaint stating:

“The plaintiff is a YouTuber known by the alias ‘Yutabon’ and is currently a first-year high school student.”

The defendant was listed as Honma.

“The defendant is described as the person who made posts using an anonymous account on X (formerly Twitter) referred to as <A> (editor’s note: the actual account name is in the complaint).”

“The complaint stated that the posts were made while the plaintiff was traveling around Japan by truck with his father, and included insults wishing harm on the plaintiff’s life and body, such as “little brat,” “I hope someone plays a prank on you,” and “I hope you get into an accident.””

The complaint included such statements and demanded payment of “258,760 yen.” Honma was facing a civil lawsuit from Yutabon, demanding compensation exceeding 250,000 yen for damages.

However, the account referred to as <A> was not Honma’s, and he had no recollection of making any posts like “little brat.” Honma was completely bewildered as to why he was being sued.

“I was being charged 250,000 yen, and my first thought was, ‘Is this a fraud posing as the court?’ However, since it was a mail item that was delivered by hand with a seal, I reconsidered and thought it might be real. So, I decided to consult with a law office,” said Mr. Honma.

The defamatory comments against Yutabon that are being questioned in this accusation appeared two years ago, in October 2022. Yutabon replied to a man who had never been on a date, saying,

“What?! I’ve been on dates, and everyone went to school but has never been on a date?! That’s crazy!”

In response, a person from an account identified as <A> reacted as follows:

“I hope this brat gets pranked or has an accident while traveling around Japan (laughs).”

Yutabon requested his lawyer to identify <A>, and it turned out that Mr. Honma was the one.

Why did this case of mistaken identity occur? The reason is simple: the subscriber of the phone number that the lawyer investigated had changed.

The problematic post was made in October 2022. Mr. Honma contracted the relevant phone number with KDDI more than a year after the post, in December 2023. In other words, by the time the lawyer received the results of the information disclosure, <A> had already canceled the phone, and that phone number had become registered to the new subscriber, Mr. Honma.

Although the ‘wrongful accusation’ has been cleared.

Attorney Katsunari Fukunaga, representing Yutabon, stated,

“We did everything we could with the information available, and as a result, we filed the lawsuit against the current defendant (Mr. Honma) as the source. There’s no way to confirm anything beyond that. It’s rare for many people to share the same mobile phone number, and when that happens, it can be difficult to trace the perpetrator. Generally, it’s not that we can never trace them.”

Ultimately, the lawsuit was withdrawn on September 5, and Mr. Honma’s ‘wrongful accusation’ was cleared. However, he feels quite exhausted from being involved in the situation.

“When I first consulted with the law office, they told me, ‘It will cost 400,000 yen to take on the lawsuit. That’s more than the 250,000 yen being claimed.’ In a way, out of kindness, they suggested that ‘it would be cheaper to just pay 250,000 yen.’ But that seemed completely unreasonable, so I decided to handle the lawsuit myself without relying on a lawyer.

I taught myself how to write a response document (a written statement detailing my position against the other party’s claims), and on the day of the oral argument (a procedure where the parties or their representatives present their claims and evidence before the judge), I took a day off work to attend the Tokyo District Court from Tochigi. Since I had no knowledge of legal proceedings, I used my days off to attend several free consultations with lawyers.”

Mr. Honma was able to avoid trouble by responding firmly, but as the issues of defamation through social media increase, cases like this may also be on the rise. There are likely individuals who, feeling unsettled, might leave such situations unaddressed. If someone finds themselves facing a lawsuit they have no recollection of, how should they respond? Attorney Yuka Kofuji of Hibiki Law Firm offers the following advice.

“The lawsuit is sent abruptly. It includes a document stating, ‘There will be an oral argument at the court on [date], so if you have any objections, please submit a response document.’ If you become flustered and, while trying to figure out what to do, fail to submit your response document and do not attend the initial oral argument, the trial will proceed in your absence.

In the legal world, ‘the absence of a rebuttal means the defendant acknowledges the plaintiff’s claims.’ Therefore, as a general rule, a judgment will be issued recognizing the plaintiff’s demands. So, please make sure to submit at least your response document. Even if the format isn’t perfect, it’s enough to simply write, ‘I genuinely have no recollection of this, and the plaintiff’s claims are incorrect.'”

If Yutabon is sued…

The response document is included in the envelope sent from the court, and you do not have to attend the initial oral argument as long as you submit the response document. This allows you more time, during which you can visit free legal consultations held by city offices or bar associations, or consult with Legal Terrace, an organization established by the government to assist in resolving legal troubles. Attorney Kofuji continued.

Cases like Yutabon’s, where individuals face defamation on social media and end up mistakenly suing the wrong person, are not uncommon.

“In a lawsuit filed by the mother of wrestler Hana Kimura, who died by suicide in 2020, there was also a case of mistaken identity. They obtained a screenshot of a post that harmed the family’s feelings and used it to identify the poster, but it turned out that the screenshot itself was forged. Most of the posters who wrote defamatory comments about Hana deleted their tweets and accounts and fled, leaving the mother with no choice but to base her lawsuit on the screenshot of the post.

However, it seems that the wrongly accused suffered significant emotional distress and counter-sued the mother for 8.8 million yen in damages. Although the lawsuit was dismissed, it resulted in a rather unpleasant outcome,” said a judicial reporter from a national newspaper.

While Kofuji states that Yutabon’s case of mistaken identity “would certainly result in a loss if sued,” Mr. Honma says, “It seems like a simple mistake, so I’m not considering suing Yutabon.”

The defamation on social media has indeed created new victims, and such cases are likely to continue to increase in the future.