Legal High court judge impeached for social media posts

Okaguchia Kiichi, 58, a judge at the Sendai High Court, was dismissed today in an impeachment trial after being indicted for posting offensive social media messages. He is the first to be removed for such a cause in Japan. The Diet's Judge Indictment Committee impeached Okaguchi in June 2021. As Okaguchi has no avenue for appeal, he will automatically lose his certification to work in the legal sector. There have been ten impeachment trials in Japan, with Okaguchi being the eighth judge to be dismissed.

Fourteen Diet members heard the case in the Judge Impeachment Court. A two-thirds majority of those members is required to remove a judge from the bench. In the latest case, eight or more of the 12 judges who heard the 15th public hearing, which concluded the trial, must have voted in favor of dismissal. Okaguchi was indicted in 2021 for 13 acts, including making insulting social media posts to the bereaved family of a high school girl who was murdered, which were considered to be gross misconduct that greatly hurt the dignity of the judiciary.

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It was not the first time Okaguchi was reprimanded: in 2016, he uploaded selfies wearing a fundoshi and was administered a stiff rebuke for "posting inappropriate tweets."

Oh my god, what did I just see?