Operator of notorious bulletin board lost in cyber space

AERA (translation from Japanese and English publication by  Mainichi Daily News)
October 10, 2006
Source: http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/waiwai/news/20061010p2g00m0dm020000c.html

All sorts of mail is bulging out of the postbox, but the thick wads of legal letters stand out. A peep inside through the windows of the Tokyo apartment provides no hint that anybody has lived inside for a while.

It's the home of Hiroyuki Nishimura, the 29-year-old webmaster of Ni-Chaneru, the huge bulletin board that is arguably the Japanese language Internet's most popular -- and most notorious -- site.

Nishimura has been reported by Japan's tabloid media as "missing" -- with the strong implication that he'd run away from massive debts brought on by a huge number of lost lawsuits that he consistently refused to contest by showing up in court. But the women's weekly says it has managed to track him down and find out about the rumors of his disappearance.

"I'm just hanging out like I always do," Nishimura tells AERA with a blog posting that serves as answers to its e-mailed questions.

Nishimura defends his decision not to contest the myriad of lawsuits filed against Ni-Chaneru.

"I've been sued in the north as far as Hokkaido and the south as far as Okinawa. It's simply not possible to attend every court case where I've been named as a defendant. I figure if I can defend myself in every case, it's exactly the same as not turning up in my defense," he tells the weekly indirectly.

Nishimura also strongly denies suggestions that he's gone bankrupt, which many have speculated may be the main reason nobody seems able to find him now.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," he writes when questioned about his financial state.

AERA, however, begs to disagree. It says that Nishimura, as Ni-Chaneru's administrator, was sued in May by a man claiming to have been defamed on the bulletin board by postings listing his name and accusing him of molestation and bankruptcy. The man was seeking to have Nishimura release details of those who had posted the messages on the site. Nishimura did not turn up in court for the case, nor did he accept the injunction ordering him to make the information available.

"I asked the court to impose a fine of 50,000 yen for every day he failed to comply and it did. He already owes more than 2 million yen," the plaintiff tells AERA. "Because he hasn't paid that, I applied to have him declared bankrupt."

Unlike companies, which are regularly shut down by creditors, it's rare for a creditor to bring about an individual's bankruptcy. But Nishimura now faces the prospect of a receiver being appointed to look into his financial affairs and selling off whatever he has to repay what he owes, according to the weekly.

The plaintiff took the drastic step because Ni-Chaneru has consistently refused to pay up when courts have declared it a loser in court cases. It has already been ordered to fork out more than 20 million yen over lost lawsuits.

"If they put the Ni-Chaneru domain up for auction, it'd reap tens of millions of yen for sure," the man tells AERA. "There's bound to be a company out there that would buy it."

It's still unsure whether the court will order a receiver be appointed to oversee Nishimura's finances. Surely, he wouldn't be able to ignore the courts again if that happened? Others who've won court cases against him aren't so sure.

"We tried everything from property seizures to forced execution of rulings, but we could get no more than 2 million yen," says a spokesman from DHC, a cosmetic company awarded 7 million yen in a court battle with Nishimura. "We'd welcome the chance to get more if bankruptcy proceedings go ahead, but have our doubts about whether this will really happen."

A lawyer involved in a number of Ni-Chaneru-related lawsuits says that the current attack on Nishimura is nothing new.

"People have suggested bankruptcy proceedings before," the lawyer says. "The issue revolves around whether the court will recognize him as bankrupt with debts of only a few million yen. It might be different if everybody who's won court cases against him joined forces and fought together."

Even then it's no certainty -- Ni-Chaneru's revenue is all controlled completely by a separate advertising company, making the bulletin board's accounts something of a black hole.

"If the receiver can get their hands on that," the plaintiff tells AERA, "everything will become totally clear." (By Ryann Connell)

WaiWai stories are transcriptions of articles that originally appeared in Japanese language publications. The Mainichi Daily News cannot be held responsible for the contents of the original articles, nor does it guarantee their accuracy. Views expressed in the WaiWai column are not necessarily those held by the Mainichi Daily News or Mainichi Newspapers Co.