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TOKYO, June 4-- A panel comprised of the Japanese government's communications ministry on Thursday agreed that victims of cyber-bullying should have certain rights when it comes to internet-related companies disclosing personal information about digital bullies. Such rights, the panel agreed, while noting issues of freedom of expression, include the victims being able to request that website operators, social media operators and internet service providers, in cases of cyber-bullying, disclose the names and phone numbers of those posting defamatory remarks. The panel also said that more dialogue on the matter was needed to traverse the easing of procedural measures needed for internet-related firms to release users' personal information so that people anonymously posting defamatory remarks online can be identified. The government's recent push to clamp down on cyber-bullying has been punctuated by the recent death of Hana Kimura, a 22-year-old cast member of the reality TV show "Terrace House Tokyo 2019-2020," in a suspected suicide believed to have links with cyber-bullying that rocked the nation. Kimura, who joined the show broadcast by Fuji TV and carried by U.S. streaming service Netflix, in September last year, began receiving hundreds of hateful messages daily on social media, following an episode in late March in which she got angry with a fellow cast member. "I have received nearly 100 honest opinions every day and I cannot deny that I got hurt," Kimura wrote on Twitter on May 23, the day of her death. | 
