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.