On August 13, Yoshimi Tanaka and Syougo Kodama brought a lawsuit against Hitoshi Takase and The Japan Broadcasting Station. The reason for this is that Mr. Takase accused Mr. Kodama of being a North Korean secret agent in his book, Chasing after Super K. In this book, the author reported that Mr. Tanaka was involved in a money forging scheme in Cambodia. In addition, The Japan Broadcasting Station declared that this story must be true and also implicated Mr. Tanaka. However, this story distorted the truth and ruined the reputations of Mr. Tanaka and Mr. Kodama. Because of the misrepresentations perpetrated by the station, Mr. Kodama and Tanaka lost their status and failed in their co-operated business. Therefore, in order to establish their innocence and repair their financial situation, Mr. Tanaka and Mr.　Kodama sought 20,000,000 Yen ( Around $150,000 US dollars) from Mr. Takase and The Japan Broadcasting Station. A law suit: A compensation for damages- price 76050,000 yen (around $57,000) the price of revenue stamp- 300,100 yen (around $2,300) Akihiko Ooguchi, a lawyer, takes the legal case. A brief summary of the claims: 1 The defendant must pay 10,000,000 yen and 5% interest, which accrued from 03/15/97 to 08/10/98, to Mr. Yoshimi Tanaka and Mr. Syogo Kodama. 2 The defendant must print a letter of apology at their own expense in "Asahi," "Mainichi," "Yomiuri," "Sankei, Nihon-keizai Shinbun." The size of the letters with the apology must be bigger than 24 size print. 3 The defendant must send a letter of apology to each plaintiff. 4 The defendant must broadcast the letter of apology in the program "The Scoop" which airs on the Asahi Broadcasting Network. 5 The defendant must pay all expenses of the law suit. The Reason of Claim An interested party: 1 Plaintiff, Mr. Yoshimi Tanaka , is accused of criminal conduct in a case brought by the US secret service. Now, he is in prison in Thailand. 2 Plaintiff, Mr. Syogo Kodama is a Chinese Cambodian business man. He tried to engage in the international trading business, but the US Secret Service accused him of being a criminal. As a result, he also is currently in prison in Thailand. 3 Defendant, Asahi Broadcasting Network is a national broadcast company which covers more than 24 networks in the nation. This company broadcasts most of their programs through these networks. 4 Defendant, Mr. Hitoshi Takase, a chief producer of broadcasting in Japan Broadcasting News Company, mainly produced the program which accused the plaintiffs. 5 Defendant, The Japan Broadcasting Station sold a produced news film documentary to the television network. The television broadcasting program: 1 Defendant Asahi Broadcasting Network broadcast the program, called The Scoop: The Dark Side of North Korea 2, Chasing the Mystery of Super K, forging US dollar. to the nation on the broadcasting network at 6 p.m., February 15th, 1997 2 Asahi Broadcasting Network commissioned The　Japanese Broadcasting Station to create the program. Mr. Takase produced this program. The contents of program: 1 This program documented how a North Korean, called "Super K," forged US dollars, and brought these forged dollars to the South East Asian market, and attempted money exchange. This program also discussed the issue of forged money. The Misrepresentation This program claimed that Mr. Tanaka, the plaintiff, participated in this action as a North Korean agent. This program also claimed Mr. Kodama helped Mr. Tanaka. During the program, the broadcast company declared that this was a true story. The misrepresentation of illegal action: The content of the program was incorrect. However, the program speculated that Mr. Tanaka and Mr. Kodama must be involved with the illegal action of forgery. At that time, plaintiffs were trying to prepare for international trading business with the Cambodian business world and the political world. If they attempted illegal action, this criminal action would make them easily lose their social status and connection in Cambodia. If so, this action would clearly lead them to bankruptcy Thus, there was no motive for them to commit a crime at that time. The damage of plaintiff: This was a case of false accusation. Mr. Tanaka was born in Japan, so he has a lot of friends and connections. However, because of the misrepresentations of the broadcasting company, he lost a lot of respect from his Japanese friends and society. As a result, he suffered a lot of loss. To repair his reputation: In order to repair the reputations of Mr. Tanaka and Mr. Kodama, we must make the case which we stated above. T h e r e f o r e , a s w e s t a t ed b e f o r e , t h e d e f e n d a n t s h o u l d p a y 1 0 , 0 0 0 , 0 0 0 y e n to e a c h f o r t h e i r p a i n a n d s u f f e r i n g . T h u s , w e r e q u e s t t h e c o u r t t o r e m e d y t h e f a l s e a c c u s a t i o n . A w r i t t e n a p o l o g y : I , H i t o s h i T a k a s e a n d The J a p a n B r o a d c a s t i n g Station , p r o d u c e d t he television program, The Scoop: The Dark Side of North Korea 2, Chasing the Mystery of Super K, forging US dollar, in Feb. 1996. This program was released on the Asahi Broadcasting Network on March 15 1996. In this program, we falsely represented the facts, so we profoundly damaged the honor of Mr. Tanaka and Mr. Kodama. We hereby apologize and declare that we respect ethics and care for the social public. Therefore, we will strive to never make that kind of mistake in the future. Hitoshi Takase, Isamu Sakurai ( General manager of The Japan Broadcasting Station.) A written apology: Our company broadcast The Scoop: The Dark Side of North Korea 2, Chasing the Mystery of Super K, forging US dollar, on our 24 network broadcasting. On the program, we speculated that Mr. Kodama and Mr. Tanaka were involved with the operation called, "The operation of forging super K dollar." We hereby retract our misrepresentation of the facts which profoundly damaged your honor. We hereby apologize and declare that we respect ethics and care for the social public. Therefore, we will strive to never make that kind of mistake in the future. Kunio Itou General manager of Asahi Broadcasting Network