Did Google even defend against this in the Japanese court? I don't understand how this could get by if they did.

The fact is that names are not unique. Would he be complaining if his namesake was a renowned scientist / businessman / whatever?

Just because someone with his name is linked to crime does not mean that he is. It simply means that someone with a similar or same name is known for their criminality. I don't have what I would term as a popular name but hundreds of people share it. I would imagine in countries with far denser populations that meeting someone with the same name would be fairly common.

I would also like to see an employer who received a CV. Went to Google and typed in half a name and without even searching discarded the CV because auto-complete had shown the name along with a buzz word like crime.