MYTH – Local prosecutors summarily charged a police officer in October with defaming a university professor on social media, including comparing her to a “monster,” the Mainichi Shimbun learned on Nov. 5.

The local prosecutor’s office in Mito accused the 45-year-old officer of insulting Atsuko Higashino, a professor of international politics at the University of Tsukuba. The prosecution brought the case to the Mito Summary Court on October 29, and the court fined the officer 300,000 yen (approximately $1,950) on the same day.

According to the indictment, the police officer used his smartphone to post a comment on social media that said, “From the looks of him, isn’t he a monster?” next to an image of the professor, from his home in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, around 9:40 pm on May 29, 2023, insulting her with it.

The professor began using Twitter (now

According to investigation sources and Higashino, the police officer was a chief inspector in the community security department of the Ibaraki prefectural police headquarters when he held the position in question. Higashino saw the post in May 2023 and filed a criminal complaint against it last April. On June 18, documents accusing the officer of insults were sent to prosecutors.

Higashino told the Mainichi Shimbun: “The summary indictment does not mean the case is over. I am worried that I may meet the former chief inspector who defamed me.”

She continued: “Looking at social media, there’s a comment about me filing a criminal complaint, saying, ‘Couldn’t I put up with something like that?’ “Some people are causing me secondary harm. I think this shows how deeply rooted the defamation problem is.”

The prefectural police inspection office commented: “We will refrain from commenting on individual cases.”

(Japanese original by Hitomi Saito and Natsuki Nishi, Mito Bureau)