Today the Kyoto District Court found a man who repeatedly sent threats to Nintendo guilty of Obstruction of Business.
As reported by the NHK and the Kyoto Shimbun, Takemi Kazama (27), a public employee from Hitachi, Ibaraki Prefecture, was sentenced to one year of jail time and four years of probation.
If you’re unfamiliar with the Japanese legal system, non-repeat offenders can have jail time up to three years replaced by a number of years of probation (up to five). During that period, they must stay out of trouble or serve the full jail sentence.
Kazama sent threats to Nintendo via the message form on the company’s official site 39 times between August and November 2023, with messages like “I’ll make you regret releasing that sh*t game” and “I’m going to kill everyone involved. Be wary at events with an audience.”
This forced Nintendo to cancel events it had scheduled, and one employee testified during a hearing that the threats reminded them of the tragic arson that killed 36 Kyoto Animation employees in 2019.
The Judge mentioned that the defendant committed the crime to relieve his stress due to frustration from losing repeatedly in online matches, pointing out that the motive was selfish and his methods were relentless and malicious.
He also added in the motivation of the sentence that the damage dealt to Nintendo’s business was considerable. Considering the cancellation of the events, that’s definitely the case.
Threats to gaming companies and their employees are certainly not uncommon, albeit they may sound surprising in a country as safe as Japan, so it’s good to see when they’re not taken lightly.
