The Tokyo District Court has convicted a woman of violating the anti-stalking law for repeatedly liking her former partner's posts on X, finding that online attention alone can count as stalking even without a message.
The woman was subject to an order barring her from stalking or otherwise approaching the man, her former partner. She kept reacting to his posts on X with "likes" — the platform's one-tap response — and the court weighed whether that conduct broke the law.
The court found the conduct unlawful, ruling that the repeated reactions amounted to stalking under the anti-stalking law. The law covers repeated acts that harass a person, not only direct contact.
The case turns on how Japan's courts treat attention paid online. A like leaves no message and can be sent without ever addressing the person, but it still reaches them, and the court treated the repeated reactions as harassment.