Tokyo prosecutors on Friday charged the former chairman of consumer loan firm Takefuji Corp. with defaming a freelance journalist who wrote an article about the firm's wiretapping of his phone line.
The indictment of Yasuo Takei, 74, came in response to a criminal complaint filed by freelance writers Shunsuke Yamaoka and Yu Terasawa in October.
Takei, Takefuji's founder, is currently on trial before the Tokyo District Court on charges of ordering one of his subordinates to wiretap Yamaoka and another journalist.
Takei stands accused of having the firm say on its Web site in May and June that Yamaoka's wiretapping article was groundless and libelous.
Yamaoka had been writing articles detailing Takefuji's misdeeds since November 2002, based on internal company documents he had received from Kazuhiro Nakagawa, a former Takefuji employee.