[Victory of Happy Science confirmed] Weekly Bunshun and Hiroshi Hiroyoshi abandon appeal

Regarding the defamation lawsuit (filed on March 4, 2020) where Happy Science sought damages against Weekly Bunshun (February 28, 2019 issue) and Hiroshi Hiroyoshi for publishing articles based on falsehoods by Hiroshi Hiroyoshi, no appeal was made by Weekly Bunshun or Hiroyoshi Hiroyoshi by the appeal deadline, confirming the complete victory of Happy Science.

As a result, the high court's decision to dismiss the appeal by Weekly Bunshun and Hiroyoshi Hiroyoshi, and to order Hiroyoshi Hiroyoshi and others to jointly pay 3.3 million yen to the plaintiff, upholding the district court's ruling in favor of Happy Science, has been confirmed.

In this lawsuit, regarding the articles based on falsehoods by Hiroshi Hiroyoshi, such as "forced marriage with an actress," "quitting the agency for marriage and not going to the filming site," "mandatory admission to the University of Tokyo Faculty of Law," "universities other than the University of Tokyo, Waseda, and Keio are not universities," and "being number one in everything is the only thing that matters," it was judged that none of these were true, nor was there any reasonable basis to believe them to be true.
Additionally, it was recognized that "the testimony of appellant Hiroshi Hiroyoshi cannot be trusted due to its unnaturalness, (omitted) and cannot be immediately believed," "appellant Bungeishunju should have had doubts about the truthfulness of Hiroshi Hiroyoshi's statements," and "further corroborative investigation should have been conducted with related parties," and none of the claims of truthfulness by Weekly Bunshun and Hiroshi Hiroyoshi were acknowledged.

We strongly urge Weekly Bunshun, who published Hiroshi Hiroyoshi's false statements without corroborative investigation, and Hiroshi Hiroyoshi, who continues to lose in numerous defamation cases against our group, to sincerely accept this high court ruling and deeply repent. Furthermore, regarding Hiroshi Hiroyoshi's book published by Bungeishunju, which overlaps with the content of this article, the Supreme Court has also confirmed the victory of Happy Science.

Happy Science Group Public Relations Division