The latest news on Kimura Hana’s online bullying case

Professional wrestler and “Terrace House” star Kimura Hana died in an apparent suicide back on May 23rd.

The reason is reportedly due to the online bullying she received because of a certain scene on the reality show in which she was upset towards a male cast member for drying her expensive wrestling attire and shrinking it.

In the 38th episode, she is seen berating the cast member and knocking off his hate, but it was revealed through tweets by Kimura and also the male cast member that the scene may have been setup by “Terrace House” staff.

Back in July, Fuji TV said that there was a written agreement with cast members of “Terrace House” on how scenes would be staged and shot.

Former professional wrestler and Hana’s mother, Kimura Kyoko, said her daughter was told to play her heel character on the show and was instigated by staff especially for the incident which led to the hate comments on social media.

In addition, Fuji TV said that members would have to agree to all instructions and decisions regarding scheduling and the way the scenes are shot and how these are edited afterward.  And if any cast member violates its terms and it affects the production, the cast members would have to pay for damages incurred,which is the least amount of the production cost for one episode.

A man from Osaka Prefecture in his 20s was referred to prosecutors for posting numerous slanderous hate messages towards Kimura, including messages “Hey, when are you going to die?”. The suspect sent more than five hate comments and deleted the comments after Kimura’s death.

The man told police that he wanted to get back at Kimura for her verbal abuse towards a male cast member.

Kimura Kyoko released a statement, “I pray this will deter people from slandering others so that the number of people facing hardships will fall. I want the perpetrators to atone for their sins, then live happily on Hana’s behalf. Hana would not have wanted to see a tragic chain reaction which turns the perpetrator into the next ‘victim'”.

Police discovered 1200 hate comments from SNS two months before Kimura Hana died, 300 defamatory Twitter comments from around 200 accounts. Most of the comments were later deleted but police managed to receive the restored data. It was revealed that Kimura had saved 140 Twitter posts of the slanderous hate comments.

Despite the suspect having apologized back in June for his hate comments, saying “I am very sorry. I will bear the crime for the rest of my life and fulfill my responsibilities”.

Kimura’s mother replied to the apology, ““It is a painful choice to make a claim against a person who has apologized. However, if I let it pass, Hana’s death will be wasted. I want to raise this issue publicly and hopefully see a world that is free from slander”.

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