A former computer programmer was fined 500,000 yen Friday for posting a fabricated news article on the Internet that said Chinese warplanes had entered Japanese airspace.
The Tokyo Summary Court issued a summary order to Takahiro Yamamoto, 30, who lives in Nagasaki, to pay the fine after prosecutors filed a summary indictment against him earlier in the day for a Copyright Law violation.
"I did it half in fun," Yamamoto reportedly told police.
According to the indictment and police, Yamamoto created a fake Yahoo Japan Web site, where he posted the false news story with the dateline "America, Oct. 18 Kyodo." The story, which also ended with a "Kyodo News" credit, said the U.S. Pentagon had announced an "invasion." The site was accessed 66,000 times before it was removed the next day.
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