Hi. Posting from Japan. Not sure this is the right board but I've been sitting on this for weeks and I needed somewhere to put it.
I'll try not to over-explain but some context is probably necessary.
What's going on
There's a published writer here — works in science fiction and the yuri genre, published by several major houses — and for the past while there have been allegations circulating about him on social media.
It started when someone posted on X describing a close friend who had died. They said their friend had been in a relationship with this writer. They said explicitly: please don't treat this as a formal accusation. Then they deleted everything. Archives exist.
Separately, people have been connecting him to a young aspiring artist who died in 2022. They're working from a personal essay he published and reconstructed timelines. Contested. Unverified. I know.
The writer has denied everything. He's said he's consulted lawyers, reported it to Tokyo police, and that continuing to spread what he considers false claims may have legal consequences.
No investigation. No journalism. The publishers haven't said a word. Japanese mainstream media hasn't touched it.
Why I can't let it go
Two young women are dead. That's the part I keep coming back to.
Maybe there's nothing to it. Maybe I'm missing crucial context. I genuinely don't know what happened and I'm not claiming to.
But all of this is playing out through deleted posts and screenshots and anonymous accounts, while every institution that might theoretically do something just... isn't. And the legal risk of speaking openly in Japan is real — defamation law here is strict enough that even sharing personal experience can expose you to consequences. So people go quiet. Or they post and delete.
And then it just sits there. Not resolved. Not gone.
The actual question
AIBU to feel unsettled by this pattern, even setting aside whether any specific claim is true?
Not looking for a verdict on the writer. Just wondering how other people make sense of situations where serious claims exist, institutions stay silent, and the only place anything gets discussed is informal channels where everyone is also scared to speak.
Still reading everything I can find. Might post more if things develop.