In effort to stop bullying, Japan to sentence people to a year in prison for making online insults

Being an online troll in Japan can now take cyberbullies offline for at least a year.

An amendment made to Japan’s penal code this week increases the penalty for insulting others online to a minimum of one year in prison and a maximum fine of 300,000 yen -- or about $2,236 in U.S. money.

The new law also increases the statute of limitations -- the amount of time prosecutors have to charge a person -- from one year to three.

The passage of the law, which goes into effect this summer, comes two years after 22-year-old reality star Hana Kimura was driven to suicide by cyberbullies.

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