According to a recently-published Kyodo News story, the Tokyo District Court has asked Internet search giant Google to delete certain terms from its autocomplete search feature; thus approving a last week-filed petition by a unidentified Japanese man who had complained about the mentioned feature.

As per the story, published on the Japan Times website, the Japanese man had discovered that the autocomplete feature was apparently maligning his name when he lost his job, without any prior warning, a few years back, and was then rejected for new jobs time after time.

In an attempt to figure out the reason behind his job-related problems, the man found that the typing of his name into Google search unfolded over 10,000 different suggestions in the autocomplete feature, with an alleged linking of his name to criminal acts.

When he approached Google to delete some of these words, the company reportedly turn down his request; thus forcing him to seek a court injunction against the Web biggie in Japan.

As per the man’s lawyer Hiroyuki Tomita, the autocomplete feature can seemingly cause “irretrievable damage” - like bankruptcy or job loss - by merely displaying search results which amount to “defamation or violation of the privacy of an individual person or small and medium-size companies.”

Meanwhile, about the Tokyo court order, Google said in an e-mailed statement to Bloomberg News, that the provisional order has asked the company to “delete specific terms from autocomplete,” and does not require a complete suspension of the autocomplete function.