Following the assassination of Japan’s former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, media outlets are falsely reporting the identity of the assassin. One case of this mistaken identity is a European media outlet reporting that Hideo Kojima is the assassin. Read on to find out more.
A Greek news segment reported that Hideo Kojima is the assassin of Japan PM Shinzo Abe
A Greek news channel falsely accused video game director Hideo Kojima as the assassin of Japan’s former PM Shinzo Abe. But before they came out with the news, a far-right French politician named Damien Rieu accused Kojima of being the gunman.
In a now deleted tweet from Damien Rieu, he accuses Kojima of being responsible for shooting Shinzo Abe. To recap, a former member of the Japanese navy is the man behind the killing of Shinzo Abe. The man also revealed that he had been planning the assassination for months.
Rieu attached three pictures of Hideo Kojima in his tweet, all three photos implying that Kojima is associated with leftist movements in Japan. Two pictures show Kojima posing with Che Guevara art. Then, Rieu captioned his tweet as “The extreme left kills,” thus supporting his stance against leftist movements as he is a far-rightist.
For those unfamiliar with Guevara, he was a prominent figure in the Cuban Revolution as well as communism around the world.
After Rieu tweeted Kojima’s pictures and linked him to the assassination, a local news outlet in Greece picked up on the tweet. Then, without fact-checking, they ran the story in one of their online segments. This caught the attention of those who recognized Hideo Kojima.
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Kojima Productions are preparing to press charges against those involved
In response to the fake news surrounding the assassination of Shinzo Abe, Kojima Productions released a statement. According to Kojima Productions, they strongly condemn the spreading of fake news. In the statement they published on Twitter, the production company vows to “consider taking legal action in some cases.”
According to the PC Gamer, the main reason why French politician Damien Rieu most probably linked Kojima to the killing is because of racism. A racist joke was posted on 4Chan which claims that Kojima is the assassin.
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Afterwards, a French comedian took to Twitter and mocked the situation. Rieu retweeted the joke and he was under the impression that Kojima is actually the assassin.
When word got to Rieu that he had propagated false news, he quickly took down the tweet and apologized. However, there are still screenshots of his tweet implicating Kojima in the assassination of Shinzo Abe.
Going back to the statement from Kojima Productions, it is unclear who they will be suing for the libelous statements about their founder being the assassin. As for Kojima himself, he has yet to comment on the situation. Right now, he is working on an untitled game with Xbox.
Who is the real assassin?
Tetsuya Yamagami is the man responsible for the death of Shinzo Abe. As we mentioned earlier, he is a former member of the Japanese navy. And according to the Japanese police, his motives for killing Abe was personal.
After sitting down with investigators, Yamagami confessed that he thought Shinzo Abe was part of a certain group he hated. Moreover, his mother was also believed to be involved in the unnamed group which Yamagami hated so much.
The suspect used a homemade weapon to shoot the former PM twice. According to Yamagami, he watched YouTube videos to learn how to craft homemade weapons like the gun he used to kill the former Prime Minister.
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If you have other questions about the assassination of Shinzo Abe, feel free to leave them in the comments below. We would love to hear from you. For more content, stay with us, here at Spiel Times.
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