Teruo Kano, father of Kyoko Kano, allegedly accosted the Kano sisters with an umbrella in a Tokyo underground parking lot complex on December 25, 2007 after the sisters had allegedly refused to pay him back an undisclosed amount of money.
Following the incident, on 11 January 2008, Kyoko Kano filed a defamation lawsuit in compensatory damages against weekly news magazine Shukan Shincho in the Tokyo District Court.