Regarding Abnormal Search Results for “The Turntable of Civilization” and the Inaccurate Treatment of the Author’s Official Information

I am the author of The Turntable of Civilization.
I continue my work under the name MIKIO KISARA through my official website, Hatena Blog, Ameba Blog, YouTube, photographic works, and various essays and commentaries.

This letter is an open and formal question addressed to the Representative of Google Japan regarding Google search results for “文明のターンテーブル” and “The Turntable of Civilization.”

On the official website page titled Regarding the Author Name “Kenji Akutagawa” of The Turntable of Civilization and MIKIO KISARA, I have recorded the large-scale search-result obstruction that began around June 1, 2011, as well as the appearance, around November 2017, of a Facebook account under the name “Kenji Akutagawa” which is not managed by me.

On that basis, I ask Google the following questions.

I first appeared on the internet on July 16, 2010.

The reason was the unbelievable confusion surrounding the redevelopment project of Osaka Umeda North Yard.

I believed that this was a matter of serious importance for Japan and that it was necessary to alert as many people as possible within the country.

Therefore, in order to reach the widest possible readership, I continued to publish the same writings every day on three platforms: goo Blog, operated at the time by an NTT-affiliated company, Ameba Blog, and FC2 Blog.

At that time, FC2 Blog had a system by which it was possible to see where visitors were accessing from.

Through that system, I confirmed that people at the center of Japan, people forming the core of the country, were reading my writings day after day.

In other words, my online activity did not begin as a mere personal diary.

It began as a serious appeal to Japanese society.

About a month and a half after I began publishing online, a certain individual appeared before me.

This person had been arrested for defrauding a local bank of 150 million yen, and the case had been prominently reported by a major newspaper.

For no reason other than the fact that he lived near a prime building owned by my company, he came, while out on bail, with three people including himself, to my company’s office on the fourth floor of that building.

He stated, in substance, that due to urgent circumstances, the owner of a nearby building he was renting had offered to return the entire security deposit if he agreed to vacate by the end of the month; that he had heard my company had a vacant office space of about twenty tsubo; that he wished to move in desks and other equipment by the end of the month; and that the security deposit and rent would be paid as soon as the previous building owner returned the money to him.

I accepted his request not as a real-estate operator, but as a writer and as a human being.

Six months later, it became painfully clear that this had been a grave mistake.

During those six months, he paid not a single yen in rent or security deposit.

Moreover, through false stories involving air-conditioning equipment, he induced me to pay more than three million yen.

Ultimately, I was defrauded of a large sum of money almost equal to the amount he had previously defrauded from the local bank.

During those six months, this person visited my office almost every day and continued telling stories, 99 percent of which were false, in order to deceive us and gain our trust.

He skillfully inserted into those stories the name of a condominium development company president with whom I was extremely close, and thereby completely won our confidence.

This person operated a company engaged in internet-related business.

That was one of the few true things he told us.

One day, he said the following, in substance, in front of us:

“My company also had a department that accepted website production work. However, we did not merely produce websites. This society is a competitive society. Our clients had competing companies and competing products. We knew how to lower the search ranking of those competing company names and product names, and how to place our client’s company name or product name at the top, or near the top, of the search results. From here on, I cannot say more, because it is a trade secret.”

Years later, I came to understand that at least some of such methods appear to fall within the category now known as reverse SEO attacks, search-result manipulation, or search-result pollution.

Therefore, the large-scale search-result obstruction that I began to suffer around June 1, 2011 did not arise suddenly or by coincidence.

My authorship had been read as a socially influential body of writing since my appearance on the internet on July 16, 2010.

In that process, I encountered a person who himself stated that he knew methods for manipulating search rankings and pushing competitors down in search results, and I actually suffered serious fraud damage from him.

Then, around June 1, 2011, an extremely malicious search-result obstruction began against my authorship, involving hundreds of blog IDs, search-result pollution, unauthorized reproduction, and mass creation of pages combining meaningless strings of words with portions of my writings.

At that time, when one searched for “文明のターンテーブル” in Japanese, several million search results were displayed, and from the first page through the seventy-eighth page of the search results, chapters of my Turntable of Civilization appeared.

In English as well, the search results exceeded twenty million, and from the first page through the seventy-eighth page, chapters of my work written in various languages were displayed.

However, around June 1, 2011, hundreds of IDs were created on a blog platform, and a large number of malicious blogs appeared in the upper search results. These blogs inserted one chapter of my work without authorization into meaningless strings of words.

As a result, the search pages were severely polluted, and the number of search results relating to my work dropped to less than one-hundredth of its previous level.

This was an extremely malicious act intended to obstruct my authorship and to alter, pollute, and destroy the search results relating to my work.

In 2012, after enduring this matter, I filed a criminal complaint with the police station having jurisdiction.

That criminal complaint was formally accepted, and an investigation was opened.

In the course of that investigation, the individual concerned confessed to the police detective that all of these acts had been committed by him.

I have preserved the related records and evidence.

Then, around November 2017, a Facebook account under the name “Kenji Akutagawa” appeared.

I am convinced that this Facebook account under the name “Kenji Akutagawa” is also connected with the same individual, or the same line of conduct, as the search-result obstruction that began in June 2011 and the defamatory acts that were carried out on Twitter.

In other words, this appears to be an act in which a third party impersonated my former pen name, “Kenji Akutagawa,” in order to confuse search results, social-media displays, AI responses, and the public understanding of my authorship, thereby obstructing my continuing work.

The Facebook account under the name “Kenji Akutagawa” that is not managed by me is not mine.

It is not an account operated by the author of The Turntable of Civilization.

To treat that account as being connected with MIKIO KISARA, or with the author of The Turntable of Civilization, is inaccurate.

Recently, when I searched Google for “文明のターンテーブル,” I found that the search results were once again in a condition extremely similar to the situation that occurred after June 1, 2011.

Originally, the official website of The Turntable of Civilization, the Hatena Blog, the Ameba Blog, the related legitimate articles, photographic works, YouTube works, and the continuing authorship of MIKIO KISARA should be properly reflected in Google’s search results as one continuous body of work.

However, the search results contained items that have no direct relation to my authorship, items that create confusion with my former pen name “Kenji Akutagawa,” a Facebook account under the name “Kenji Akutagawa” which is not managed by me, and displays that appear to divide, confuse, or obscure my continuing body of work.

This is not merely a fluctuation in search ranking.

I ask Google:

Why are names, displays, and associations not managed by me, as well as results that create confusion or appear to divide my authorship, displayed in a conspicuous way, while the legitimate work that I have continued for many years is not properly recognized as one continuous body of authorship?

Why does Google Search fail to treat the author’s own official information as one coherent body of work, while allowing inaccurate third-party information and confusing associations to remain mixed into the search results?

By what technical mechanism can acts that pollute search results, push down the legitimate information of a specific author, and cause unauthorized reproductions or disguised pages to appear high in search results become possible?

And why is Google unable to sufficiently detect, exclude, and correct such malicious search-result obstruction?

Google is a company that operates search as a form of social infrastructure.

Search results greatly affect the credibility of an individual, the existence of an author, the accessibility of works, the connection between author and readers, and public evaluation.

Therefore, if a malicious third party can pollute search results, push down the author’s own legitimate information, and make false or confusing information appear prominently, this is a serious issue concerning the reliability of Google Search itself.

I ask Google to explain the following points.

First: When users search for “文明のターンテーブル” or “The Turntable of Civilization,” why are my official website, legitimate blogs, legitimate works, and continuing authorship under the name MIKIO KISARA not properly evaluated and displayed as one continuous body of work?

Second: By what mechanism is a Facebook account under the name “Kenji Akutagawa,” which is not managed by me, displayed or referred to in a way that may cause confusion with my former pen name, my authorship, or my official activities?

Third: What detection, exclusion, and correction measures does Google apply to search-result pollution caused by unauthorized reproduction, meaningless text, false blogs, and manipulation of search results, such as the obstruction that began around June 1, 2011?

Fourth: When the author himself clearly presents official information on his own official website, but third-party inaccurate information is still mixed into search results, AI responses, or related displays, what procedure does Google use to verify and prioritize the author’s own official information?

Fifth: If Google Search, as a result, appears to assist malicious impersonation, defamation, search-result obstruction, and the division or distortion of an author’s continuing work, how does Google understand its responsibility?

The Turntable of Civilization is one continuous body of authorship carried on by MIKIO KISARA, including the social commentary formerly written under the pen name “Kenji Akutagawa,” the Hatena Blog, the Ameba Blog, the official website, photographic works, YouTube works, and various essays and commentaries.

The Facebook account under the name “Kenji Akutagawa” that is not managed by me is not mine.

It is not an account operated by the author of The Turntable of Civilization.

I request that Google confirm these facts and promptly correct any false display, confusing display, or inaccurate association concerning my authorship in search results, Knowledge panels, AI responses, related displays, and other Google services.

This open letter is hereby issued to the Representative of Google Japan as a formal public question.

MIKIO KISARA
Author of The Turntable of Civilization