Former GM Hidetoshi Kiyotake filed a lawsuit against the Yomiuri Shimbun group, the Yomiuri Giants, and chairman Tsuneo Watanabe on Tuesday. Kiyotake claimed damages of about 62M yen -- 52.2M yen in lost wages (between 12/2011 until 6/2013) for wrongful termination by the Yomiuri Giants and a collective 10M yen from the Yomiuri Shimbun group, the Yomiuri Giants, and chairman Watanabe for defamation. Kiyotake is also asking for a written apology to be published in the Yomiuri Shimbun national morning paper.

The first round of oral proceedings are set to take place on 2/2/2012.

Nikkan Sports has posted the team of lawyers for each side.

Kiyotake's Lawyers

Yomiuri Lawyers

FWIW: The Giants scheduled Shuichi Murata's press conference at the same time as Kiyotake's.

UPDATE @ 9:43pm - The total on the lawsuit is actually around 75,790,940 -- 52.2M yen in lost wages, 10M yen in defamation, 13M yen in order to print the written apology, and 590,940 in other fees.  And ten TV cameras and about 50 reporters covered Kiyotake's press conference on Tuesday.

UPDATE @ 11:41pm - Sponichi is carrying the following comments from taken during Kiyotake's press conference:

What are your current thoughts, now that you have filed a lawsuit against your beloved Giants?

Kiyotake: I have no words.  My goal was to help strengthen the Giants.  But, I also think that protecting coaches ultimately means your also protect the players.  I did what I had to because I wanted to protect them.  It is unfortunate that things ended the way did, but since I risked my job, I also want them to understand.

What are you plans for witnesses?

Yoshimine (lawyer): Nothing has been decided yet.  We are not considering [Tatsunori] Hara.

What are other saying about what you are doing?

Kiyotake: The Giants' fans have told me that if I have come this far, they want me to do my best to get rid of the "grime."  A lot of those people would also like to see the Giants take better care of their lifers and strengthen the team through their farm system.

Why do you think chairman Watanabe took Kiyotake's coaching decisions so lightly?

Yoshimine (lawyer): That is something I would like to ask.  A person with common sense was doing something that went against common sense.  The fact that he did not find anything wrong with that is the root of the problem.  I think the Yomiuri readers must also be worried.

Sponichi also notes, in a separate article, that Kiyotake was hoping to see the Giants return to developing young talent.

"It is obviously important to bring in reinforcements," said Kiyotake. "I tried to find a balance between bringing in reinforcement and developing talent.  Why is there a Ni-gun and a secondary Ni-gun?  Why is it necessary to have 90 players?  Honestly, I do not want to see the team go back to the way they were when Watanabe-san insisted on having a great slugging team."

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