Remember that four point gag-order Tecmo tried to slap Itagaki with? The company had simply filed for a gag-order, and it wasn't yet granted and didn't actually go into effect. Today as the second round of oral arguments for the Itagaki vs. Tecmo case commenced in which Dead or Alive creator Tomonobu Itagaki is suing over supposed unpaid wages, it was revealed that Tecmo had already rescinded the gag-order on July 7th. But, did Tecmo publicly announce that it was withdrawing the gag-order filing?
Under Japanese law, the plaintiff does have the right to withdraw filing for a gag-order at anytime. In a statement released today, Itagaki said he wanted to give Tecmo a chance to announce that it had in fact withdrawn the gag-order. Two weeks passed, and Itagaki included Tecmo's gag-order withdrawal in the evidence he submitted for today's arguments. According to Itagaki, he regrets that it was he (and not Tecmo) who had to make this publicly known, but he states he did that so all the facts were known publicly.
Itagaki speculates that Tecmo withdrew the petition because the company knew it would be shot down and wanted to avoid the bad publicity. As Itagaki says in his statement:
From the outset, the claims made in this petition had changed repeatedly in a short period of time, causing me to wonder what they would claim next; apparently Tecmo and its president Yoshimi Yasuda finally realized that their petition would most likely be denied, and before the fourth round of debates regarding its merit were held the claim was withdrawn unexpectedly.
Continuing "it is clear that this self-centered behavior by Tecmo Co. Ltd. and its president Yoshimi Yasuda, from the filing of the petition to its subsequent withdrawal, was an attempt to increase my own personal burden in both time and funds needed to combat the petition."
Stay tuned as we break down the rest of today's Itagaki V. Tecmo news this morning.