By MIREI JINGUJI/ Staff Writer
July 21, 2020 at 18:35 JST
Actress Fuka Haruna said on July 20 she had reached an out-of-court settlement with a person who had slandered her and her parents on Twitter, which prompted her to sue for defamation and file a criminal complaint.
The settlement amount was 3.15 million yen ($29,285).
Haruna, 19, also said she would withdraw her criminal complaint over the case.
“Excessive harassment that destroys the personality and livelihood of a person should be stopped as it makes nobody happy,” she said. “The person who did it will also suffer to some extent.”
Haruna said the individual in question called her an “honorary man” and her parents “failures” in the tweets, according to a video she posted on YouTube.
She was able to identify the person behind the tweets after Twitter Inc. and an internet service provider finally responded to her demands to disclose the individual's information.
She had also filed a damages suit with the Yokohama District Court and a criminal complaint over the individual's comments.
Haruna's actions prompted the poster to contact her via a lawyer to settle the case out of court.
In an interview with The Asahi Shimbun in May, Haruna noted it cost her more than 1 million yen in legal fees and about a year before she was given access to the information that led to the identity of the poster of the remarks through a separate lawsuit and other processes.
She also revealed that other individuals had vilified and harassed her online on many occasions.
“I'd like people to know that defamation of people constitutes a crime,” she said. “They should be aware that the identity of people involved in defamation will sooner or later come to light.”
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Actress Fuka Haruna (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
