High court judge faces impeachment for inappropriate tweets

@Kazuaki Shimazaki Thanks for the link - it's far more insightful than this Kyodo news wire story.

So, this case finally moved here. JapanTimes actually has an article by Colin Jones about this whole farce, but it may be not easily accessible b/c of age, but I've got it here along with his update. It includes a little more detail about the cases and the constitutional problems this decision will produce (yeah, I'm on this judge's side):

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1zzLZ-l39Fnm9vEhoPZ-Wzbvnf-bMWTxDZWgND2_p2ZE/edit#slide=id.ge0c2d1db60_0_7

Not so sure if what he tweeted really effects anything!? Jus as confused as when i first glanced at the title???

I'm as confused as the rest of the readers. The problem here seem to be that the article doesn't clarify why the mother of the victim is specifically offended. JT, it would help if a bit more info were included in this article.

It seems this judge was using twitter for his comments during the trial? Otherwise I do not see anything - at least not what is published in this article - which might be offensive.

As a judge he will know how to defend himself, he does not need to pay an expensive lawyer for that, which is surely an advantage for him in Japan.

Generally said, the best solution is not to use social media.

Their importance is totally overrated. Stay away from them.

About myself:

no facebook = no hassle

no instagram = no hassle

no twitter = no hassle

and so on.

I don't use social media and I think I didn't miss anything so far.

You can stay in touch with your friends and relatives by mobile phone, email or meet them sometimes, somewhere face to face... No need to share any private pictures, relationship problems or otherwise your opinion to the public.

"it is a serious threat to the independence, human rights and freedom of expression of judges."

Eh?

"undermined the public's trust in judges."

Eh? The judges are rubber stampers of prosecutors. Did they actually believe that their judges do something?

Foreigners who don't understand Japanese will never know how much this judge has slandered, ridiculed and taunted crime victims.

Are the family members of the victim following him on Twitter? Otherwise, how did they know he made those tweets? And why are they soooo offended? If the translation is right, what exactly is so offensive about stating the fact the victim mercilessly got murdered by such a psycho? Smells like not enough brown bags with money moving around.

Medieval justice not to make public the reason for his dismissal.

Also, a judge is a human being and after a trial, I can't see why he can't have an opinion. Distinguish private and work.

Any judge has pros and cons. The fact he can't express his views, if outside a case, make him without rights.

Of course if he did not make the distinction about his personal views and his judge views, he is to blame for misconduct. I hope it is cut clear the case but the tweets mentioned do not show it.

I am sure there is more behind that than just the mentioned tweets. No one sane could have impeached the judge for that tweet

Can’t understand what the meaning of his tweets is.

my auntie is a judge and a horrible nasty piece. The stuff she says is rancid, but she has been a judge for about 20 years.

somebody is after him.

freedom of expression

Does not mean you can say anything you like and as a judge you got more responsibility than an ordinary citizen.

I really would like to know what is his lawyer high on.

"Freedom of expression for judges"!? That thing doesn't exist - a judge does not have the right to take sides - in order to ensure impartiality and justice.

Foreigners don't know how many problematic tweets this judge has been issuing.

It's not just the tweets in this article that have been criticized.

This is pretty cut and dry. We know judges have opinions, everybody does. There are mechanisms in place which give them the opportunity to express those opinions, like legal journals and other publications. The keyword being publications, which Twitter is not.

Judges are normally discouraged from using social media to express their opinions on cases to prevent any party from claiming impartiality. An easy way to get a case dismissed against you is to point to a judge's social media and claim you can't get a fair trial in the appellate phase, especially if that judge has demonstrated a history of posting their opinions related to the law on social media.

Got surprised at the absolute lack of common sense the judge demonstrated by his use of social media, probably too much power and nobody around to criticize him. Almost as much surprised by people not realizing that a judge is not your everyday person and it is subjected to much higher standards of conducts because of his position.

Ive tweeted more offensive things than that

@wtfjapan?, in japan there are certain code of conducts that are expected from people in certain positions. As a judge he cannot express such views in public. Especially when he hurt the feeling of the mother murdered daughter. Sometimes there are things you just cannot say.

Twitter is having a huge problem because it's a place where everyone tweet about something that would offend someone in some way. I heard a lot of nations had been warning twitter to properly regulate their platform.

Could someone kindly explain what was offensive about the judge's tweets? Was it the fact that, as in the examples cited above, they were long noun phrases and not full sentences? Or was it simply petty payback for his criticism of extending the retirement age of prosecutors? Expressing even mild criticism of 'the powers that be' seems to quickly get you in trouble these days.

I don't get what he has done wrong? Did the judge reveal too much information in their tweets? Is there a law against something like that?