Defamation, Export-Control, and Tax Enforcement Cases

A Russian-speaking woman was sued in Japan over a negative clinic review; the case ended in a settlement (write-up: https://telegra.ph/O-tom-kak-damnyeah-popala-v-sud-za-plohoj-otzyv-klinike-04-15). The general takeaway from the chat, per a practicing translator, is that publishing a negative business review can theoretically lead to a defamation suit, but winning such a suit is hard for the plaintiff, who must prove intent to harm the business; using subjective phrasing ("I didn't like it") rather than evaluative phrasing ("it was bad/good") is legally safer. A similar case: a cafe in Okinawa was fined over fake negative reviews it posted about a competitor. On export control, real sentences illustrate the seriousness of the risk even for small companies: a Japanese man named Aishima Shizuo died in prison on charges of exporting equipment to China that was reclassified as potentially usable for bioweapons. In another case, someone received a five-year prison sentence for exporting boat parts through Korea in violation of sanctions. A third case involved detention over a sanctions-evasion/parallel-import scheme into Russia, resulting in a suspended sentence; Japanese customs is aware of such typical schemes. Participants stress that even discussing or advocating sanctions evasion can lead to serious consequences, up to criminal prosecution and loss of one's visa or ability to stay in Japan. On taxes, one person on a spousal visa worked remotely for a foreign company and paid tax only on amounts remitted to Japan; the tax office objected because under Japan Source Income rules, work physically performed in Japan is fully taxable regardless of the remittance amount, resulting in a large reassessment. In another case, a Tajik exporter of scrap metal and used auto parts who kept no purchase receipts had all deposits to his personal account treated by the tax office as pure profit, resulting in an assessment of roughly 7 million yen in tax on turnover of 18 million yen.