Victory for Happy Science confirmed in Supreme Court - Hiroshi's appeals dismissed -

In a defamation lawsuit filed on June 28, 2019, by Happy Science, New Star Production Co., Ltd., and ARI Production Co., Ltd. against multiple YouTube videos by Hiroshi, the Supreme Court on May 24, 2023, dismissed all appeals and petitions for acceptance of appeal by Hiroshi. As a result, Happy Science's victory in this lawsuit was confirmed, marking an eight consecutive win (including district court, high court, supreme court, and provisional disposition orders) in lawsuits against Hiroshi.

This lawsuit was filed by the Happy Science group against false statements made in Hiroshi's YouTube videos, such as "many incidents of people dying within the cult," "monitoring of affiliated talents preventing free contact with the outside," "prayers costing over 1 million yen within the cult," and "no awards from international film festivals for films other than his own."

With the Supreme Court's decision, all statements made by Hiroshi in this lawsuit were recognized as false, and the Tokyo High Court ruling (September 29, 2022) ordering Hiroshi to pay damages of 1.1 million yen to Happy Science, 440,000 yen to New Star Production Co., Ltd., and 660,000 yen to ARI Production Co., Ltd., totaling 2.2 million yen, and to delete the videos, was confirmed.

Furthermore, the Tokyo High Court ruling in this lawsuit pointed out that Hiroshi, after the district court ruling, stated, "Even if ordered to delete the videos, I can just create and publish videos with the same content," indicating that he showed no remorse for defaming and that his attitude was malicious, leading to a significant increase in the damages awarded.

We strongly urge Hiroshi to sincerely accept the Supreme Court's decision, deeply reflect, repent, and refrain from blaspheming faith, making false statements, or slandering again.

Happy Science Group Public Relations Division