Takahiro Karasawa (born 4 January 1978) is a Japanese lawyer and internet personality based in Tokyo. Karasawa claims to be "the individual who receives the second highest amount of death threats per year", second to only singer Justin Bieber.
Biography[]
Takahiro Karasawa was born in Tokyo, Japan on 4 January 1978. His father is accountant Hiroshi Karasawa, and his maternal grandfather is accountant Kazuhide Kono. He moved to Yokohama in 1984. He entered Okamoto General Lawfirm in December 2010 and became independent on July 4, 2011, launching Koushin Law Firm.
In 2012, Ryōta Hasegawa, a user and noted troll of major electronic bulletin board 2channel, hired Karasawa, touting himself as an "Internet specialist lawyer", for a defamation case in which other 2channel users were involved; Karasawa's tactics were subject to hostility by users of the boards. This resulted in the creation of a mock religion, "Koushinism", named after Karasawa's law firm, as a way to harass Karasawa by "worshipping" him; "acts of worship" by "followers" of the "religion" include Internet memes, pranks directed at Karasawa and bomb threats made in his name, which have resulted in arrests and Karasawa being banned from entering the United States. Followers of Koushinism have also taken to harassing other internet personalities in Japan, such as livestreamer Iwama Yoshikazu.
In February 2015, he and Hiroaki Yamaoka launched Cross Law Firm, and in 2016, Shohei Yamamoto was added. On October 23, 2018, the company changed its name to Steadiness Law Firm after becoming one lawyer.
On April 7, 2019, Korean-Japanese lawyer Gakuue Harada participated. In August 2019, he launched an official YouTube channel on YouTube as "Lawyer Karasawa Takahiro's Call-In-Show(弁護士唐澤貴洋のCALL IN SHOW)". He also became a lawyer for what is most commonly known as the NHK Party, a conservative party founded by Takashi Tachibana mainly to oppose the NHK.