近年、ネット上やリアル社会でのネトウヨと呼ばれる人たちの煽り活動などが大きな社会問題となっています。ここで取り上げた弁護士らへの大量懲戒請求問題もそうした現象の現れと言えます。
一つの匿名ブログがきっかけで、弁護士らに1,000人単位の大量の懲戒請求通知書が送りつけられた問題は、ネットがリアル社会に大きな影響を与えたものとして注目を集めました。
こうしたある種の煽動に踊らされた人々の異様な行動は、ネット社会に特有の社会病理学的事件とも言えそうです。
なぜ、会ったこともない人物が書いた荒唐無稽な匿名のネット記事に1,000人単位の大人が踊らされてしまったのか。
しかも多くは50歳、60歳を過ぎた分別のあるはずの大人でした。
筆者は、事件の発端から裁判の経過、現在の状況までを、関係者や懲戒請求を受けた弁護士のインタビューを交えながら、「日刊ゲンダイ」誌連載コラム「高齢者はなぜネトウヨにはまったか」（2019年4月5日から16回連載）でその謎に迫りしました。
ここでは日本のネトウヨ【netouyo (online right-wingers)】に関心を持つ多くの海外の方々にも知っていただきたいと思い、その第1回分を英訳して紹介します。参考にしていただければ幸いです。

“It is thought that a large number of those who are demanding formal disciplinary action are middle-aged and elderly. Many people have also sought amicable settlement, the youngest among them aged in their 40’s, often in their 60’s and 70’s...”

Reporting this is the lawyer later described as the “party concerned” in the mass formal demand for disciplinary action against lawyer incident, Ryo Sasaki.

Notices of formal demand for disciplinary action started arriving at Mr. Sasaki’s office in June 2017. All were from strangers. Moreover, the amount was staggering. The number of notices increased from 100, 200, eventually exceeding 3,000, in what had become an absurd situation.

Formal demand for disciplinary action is a procedure to request disciplinary punishment in response to misconduct by a lawyer. If it is acknowledged that the lawyer has not acted in good faith according to a client’s request, or is in breach of professional ethics or morality, the lawyer will be punished, for example, with suspension of their legal business.

However, Mr. Sasaki didn’t know anything about it. Naturally, since he had never met any of the people demanding formal disciplinary action.

This was what written as the reason for discipline in the notices.

“Approving statements for illegal grant subsidy requests for a Korean school, and the act of promoting such activities, is active engagement in the double crime of conscience and criminal offense, not only for the Japan Federation of Bar Associations but also this organization.”

This is alleging that approving statements requesting grants to a Korean school issued by the Japan Federation of Bar Associations and each bar association is illegal.

Mr. Sasaki is a lawyer specializing in labor issues and belongs to Tokyo Bar Association that issued the statements, however he is a “rank and file” lawyer (Mr. Sasaki), and so is not involved whatsoever in creating statements or so forth. For arguments’ sake, even if he was involved in the statements, it is clear that such involvement is not illegal.

From the outset, it was presumed that there was someone provoking the issue. This was because almost all the notices had the same wording.

Mr. Sasaki was in fact not the only subject of formal demand for disciplinary action. More than 100 lawyers belonging to 21 bar associations nationwide were targets, and in total 130,000 demands had been issued.

Blog flare up

It is known that a large number of the claimants had been instigated by blog known as "Yomei Sannen Jiji Nikki." It is a popular blog among online right-wingers that advocates to drive out foreign residents in Japan, and readers are called on for various actions.

Stating that bar association statements for requesting grants to a Korean school was “illegal,” samples of the formal demand for disciplinary action were created. Lawyers who became targets for discipline were also people who had been designated in the blog mentioned above.

The “action” called for was conducted by numbers of people reaching close to 1,000. As mentioned in the opening, a large number of those were men and women in their later years, with the talk turning to “For Japan,” “For justice.”

To be honest, I was shocked. Far from being children who don’t know left from right, adult citizens with plenty of experience, the elderly supposedly with discretion, were at taken in by what was at best a delusion published online. I can only think that this must be some kind of social pathology.

【著者プロフィール】
三宅雪子（みやけ ゆきこ）
1965年（昭和40年）3月5日ワシントン生まれ B型のうお座（雪が降っていたため雪子と名付けられる）。
桐朋女子高校、玉川学園女子短期大学、共立女子大学を卒業。民放テレビ局に21年間勤務（営業局、報道局、国際局等歴任。CSR推進室で環境・社会貢献に関わる。報道局では経済部記者として為替と株式を担当）。
2009年第45回衆議院議員選挙、群馬4区から福田康夫元総理の対抗馬として立候補。北関東ブロックで比例復活当選。予算委員会、厚生労働委員会に所属、民主党国際局副局長などを歴任。
2012年7月より「国民の生活が第一」入党。党選挙対策副委員長。2012年1月生活の党。2012年12月千葉4区から立候補。2013年7月参議院全国比例代表選挙惜敗（2位）。現在は政党に属していない。
執筆やネット配信など、政治特に福祉や雇用など専門分野を軸に社会で起きていることをわかりやすく伝えていくことに力をいれている。
父は三宅和助（外務省元シンガポール大使・中近東アフリカ局長）祖父は石田博英（石橋湛山内閣官房長官・労相6回運輸相1回務める）幼少は海外で育つ。
2016年6月10日号の「投票時間繰り上げの謎を追う」（週刊金曜日）が初のルポルタージュ。その後多数の記事を執筆。「日刊ゲンダイ」誌連載コラム「高齢者はなぜネトウヨにはまったか」は1年半以上に及ぶ取材を経て書かれたものである。