Kojima Productions Considering Legal Action After False Link to Shinzo Abe Assassination

gamerant.com:

This past Friday, Shinzo Abe, Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, was shot and killed while campaigning for a candidate in the Upper House of Parliament. News of the assassination quickly spread, and in the frantic news cycle, game director Hideo Kojima was falsely identified as the person behind the assassination. Kojima Productions is now considering legal action against those perpetuating the false narrative surrounding Kojima’s involvement with the shooting.

Hideo Kojima was swept up in the news regarding Abe due to multiple bad actors and “trolls” propping up racist posts saying that Abe’s killer and Kojima looked a lot alike. Eventually, far-right French politician Damien Rieu echoed one of these posts with the caption “The extreme left kills,” while showing images of Kojima. At which point, the Kojima narrative went viral. Not long after that, ANT1 News, a Greek news broadcast station, picked up the story and used images of Hideo Kojima while discussing the confessed assassin, Tetsuya Yamagami. Rieu and ANT1 News have since deleted their posts and rescinded their statements regarding the matter.

Hideo Kojima Mistaken as the Shinzo Abe Assassin

Following the many viral posts that made the rounds yesterday, Kojima Productions has stated its intent to pursue legal action against those that continue to perpetuate this false narrative. In a Twitter post by the official Kojima Productions account, the company states that it “condemns the spread of fake news and rumors that convey false information.” The company also says it will not tolerate libel and will consider legal action moving forward. To what extent Kojima plans to take legal action and towards whom is unknown at the time of this writing, but this tweet can