United States District Court For the Northern District of California 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 procedures. Forthereasonsstatedbelow, defendant’smotion is business, seekspermission topreservedocuments byalternative means totheCourt’srequired defendants forallegedsexual violenceduringWorld War II,onedefendant,anewspaper DOES 1-1000,inclusive, SANKEI SHIMBUN,CO.LTD.,and OKAMOTO INDUSTRIES,INC., (U.S.A.), INC.,MITSUIGROUP, MITSUBISHI GROUP,MITSUI&CO. CORPORATION (AMERICA), METAL CORPORATION,MITSUBISHI INC., NIPPONSTEEL&SUMIMOTO STEEL &SUMITOMOMETALU.S.A., HITACHI AMERICA,LTD.,NIPPON SALES, U.S.A.,INC.,HITACHI,LTD., CORPORATION, TOYOTAMOTOR AMERICA, INC.,TOYOTAMOTOR MOTOR CO.,LTD.,NISSANNORTH YUSEN KABUSHIKIKAISHA,NISSAN LINE (NORTHAMERICA),NIPPON NOBUSKE KISHI,SHINZOABE,NYK JAPAN, HIROHITO,AKIHITO v. others similarly situated KIM, forthemselves andonbehalfofall HEE NAMYOUandKYUNGSOON Case 3:15-cv-03257-WHADocument31Filed09/16/15Page1of3 In thisputativepersonal injury classactioninvolvingclaims againstnumerous Defendants. Plaintiffs, FOR THENORTHERNDISTRICTOFCALIFORNIA IN THEUNITEDSTATESDISTRICTCOURT INTRODUCTION / PROCEDURES DOCUMENT PRESERVATION MOTION FORALTERNATIVE SANKEI SHIMBUNCO.,LTD.’S ORDER REDEFENDANT No. C15-03257WHA G RANTED . United States District Court For the Northern District of California 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 women (ian-fu),” and preservingthem inasearchableenvironment notsubject toauto-delete. searching theproprietary application,twiceamonth, forall articlesincludingtheterm “comfort relevant searchterms. Plaintiffsopposethisrequest. in theproprietaryapplication,namely bypreserving articlesonlyiftheycontainoneofseveral 7-11, andseekspermission toemploy analternativemethod ofpreservingthedocuments asused million andcouldtake up toeightmonths (AndoDecl.¶27–33) Sankei notesthatitcouldinstallanewstoragesy catalog of90days,retentionforlongerthanthatcouldslowdownthesystem orcauseittocrash. laying outeacheditionofthenewspaper.Althoughthatapplicationcurrentlyretainsaback includes retainingtheversionsofarticlesthatareplacedinaproprietaryapplicationusedfor electronic, searchabledatabaseofallitsarticlesbackto1992.Onestepthatithastaken Management ConferenceinCivilCasesprovides(Dkt.No.26): articles thatpositplaintiffswere“voluntaryprostitutes”(Amd. Compl. ¶¶133–157). Shinzo Abe,thePrime MinisterofJapan,inordertomake defamatory statements bypublishing daily newspaper,asadefendant.Sankeiisaccusedofconspiringwithoneotherdefendant Japanese military. Plaintiffshavealsonamed SankeiShimbun, Co.,Ltd.,whichpublishesa sexual violenceagainstthem whentheywerekeptas“comfort women” formembers ofthe and vehiclemanufacturers fortheirconductduringWorld War IIthatallegedlycontributedto Case 3:15-cv-03257-WHADocument31Filed09/16/15Page2of3 Sankei believesthatitcould preserveallpotentially-discoverabledocuments by Sankei hasfiledanadministrative motion formiscellaneous relief pursuanttoCivilL.R. Counsel forSankeihastakenstepstocomply withParagraph4,anditalreadyretainsan Paragraph 4ofthisCourt’sSupplemental OrdertoSettingInitialCase Plaintiffs HeeNam YouandKyungSoonKim electronically-recorded material. any ongoingerasuresofe-mails, voicemails, andother limitation, interdictionofanydocument-destruction programs and related totheissuespresentedbyaction,including,without take suchaffirmative stepsasarenecessarytopreserveevidence As soonasapartyhasnoticeofthisorder,however,theshall STATEMENT ANALYSIS 2 stem, butthatsuchinstallationwouldcost$18 bring claims against numerous politicians United States District Court For the Northern District of California 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 ae: Spebr1,21.Dated: September 16,2015. application thatmay berelatedtotheissuesinthiscase. (teishintai),” issufficientlybroadtopreservetheversionsofarticlesinproprietary proposed searchterms, norhavetheyidentifiedanyothersearchterms thatshouldbeincluded. however, arguethatarticleswithterm wouldnothaveotherwisebeenpreservedunderthe used theterm “voluntarycorps(teishintai)”inarticlesaboutcomfort women. Plaintiffsdonot, relevant totheirclaims ofdefamation andintentionalinflictionofemotional distress. bringing thosearticlestopublication.Plainti proprietary applicationaretheonlyversionsthatreflectaparticularintermediary stageof of itsstatemind inselectingandeditingitsarticles,sincetheversion ofarticlesinthe document-preservation method. materials containingtheproposedsearchterms, Sankeiseekscourtapprovalofthisalternative not cease“allongoingerasuresofelectronically-recordedmaterial,” butratheronlythesetof out ofanabundancecaution(AndoDecl.¶42). these terms andfoundtheyyieldedduplicativeresults,butitwillusethebroadersearchterms (kyosei renkou),”or“prostitute(baishun-fu).”Sankeihasalreadyrunseveralsearchesusing following terms: “comfort women (ian-fu),”“sexslavery(sei-dorei),”“coerciverecruitment Nevertheless, itproposesbroadeningitsprocesstopreserveallarticlescontaininganyofthe Case 3:15-cv-03257-WHADocument31Filed09/16/15Page3of IT ISSOORDERED For thereasonsstatedabove,Sankei’sproposal, as modified above, is This orderfindsthatSankei’sproposal,ifamended toincludetheterm “voluntarycorps Plaintiffs contendthattheproposedsearchterms areinsufficientbecauseSankeihasalso Plaintiffs arguethatSankei’sproposedsoluti CONCLUSION ffs arguethatSankei’sstateofmind couldbe 3 Becausethisalternativemechanism would U W on couldleadtothedestructionofevidence NITED ILLIAM S TATES A LSUP D ISTRICT G RANTED J UDGE .