A French politician and two news sites in Iran and Greece used the image of Hideo Kojima, claiming that he was the murderer of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
In fact, Hideo Kojima has nothing to do with the assassination that happened on July 8. He is a famous video game producer, the “father” of hit titles like Death Stranding and Metal Gear Solid, according to VICE.
The first mistake began to spread after French politician Damien Rieu used Mr. Kojima’s picture to respond to another politician’s post on social media.
Hideo Kojima was not involved in the assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Photo: Bryan Bedder.
In addition, Mr. Rieu also re-shared another person’s post with content implying that the game maker was the killer. Now this politician has deleted the post, but many people have been able to take screenshots and share it widely.
This type of confusion is common in cyberspace, where rumors of violence and disaster spread rapidly. However, at least 2 news sites have published this false information.
In Iran, the Mashregh News published a picture of Mr. Kojima and implied that it was the assassin of the former Japanese prime minister. They have updated the information after many comments pointed out this mistake.
A video posted by the Greek news agency ANT1 also made the same mistake when using the image of the video game maker.
The company has removed this video, but copies still exist and spread on the Internet.
The real culprit was Tetsuya Yamagami, 41, who was arrested by the police at the scene. NHK reported that Yamagami was a member of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force from 2002-2005.
Shinzo Abe, whose influence far exceeds that of a former prime minister, was assassinated at the age of 67 on July 8. He died at a hospital in Nara Prefecture after being hit by two bullets in his left chest and right neck.
