Hideo Kojima’s studio has threatened legal action after the visionary game developer was falsely linked with the assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Abe was shot dead on 8 July while delivering a speech in Nara, a western region of Japan, and Tetsuya Yamagami has been named as his suspected killer.
Shortly after Abe’s assassination, various news outlets mistakenly identified Metal Gear Solid creator Kojima as the assassin.
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Not long after Abe was shot, a 4chan troll posted a racist image linking Kojima’s face with the shooter’s which then prompted another person to respond with a photo of Kojima wearing a Soviet cap.
Damien Rieu, a far-right French politician, tweeted out the photos of Kojima, writing: “Far left extremism kills.”
Rieu also retweeted a post from another account that implicated Kojima as the killer, however, he has since deleted the tweeted and issued Kojima an apology, with The Verge reporting that Rieu explained: “I naively took a joke for information.”
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The Verge also reports that the false information was picked up by outlets in both Greece and Iran, but those mistakes have now been amended.
On Saturday (9 July), Kojima Productions responded to the false allegations and threatened legal action, tweeting: “#KojimaProductions strongly condemns the spread of fake news and rumours that convey false information. We do not tolerate such libel and will consider taking legal action in some cases.”
UNILAD has approached Kojima and Rieu for comment.
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Abe died after being shot twice while giving a campaign speech on behalf of political candidate Kei Sato.
He suffered wounds to the right side of his neck and to the left collarbone, before being rushed to hospital where he received a blood transfusion.
Japanese police were quick to name Yamagami as Abe’s suspected killer and said his attack may have been carried out because Yamagami thought Abe was involved in a ‘specific organisation’.
Yamagami was tackled to the ground mere moments after he allegedly shot Abe with what police say was a homemade weapon.
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According to the New York Post, Yamagami, 41, was a resident of Nara, the western region of Japan where 67-year-old Abe was delivering his speech ahead of the weekend.
During an interview with investigators, Yamagami allegedly admitted he’d plotted to kill the former prime minister because he thought Abe was ‘connected to an organisation that he bore a grudge against’.
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Topics: Gaming, World News
Aisha Nozari