Tatsuya Kato, a Japanese journalist, is scheduled to attend his second hearing on Monday at the Seoul Central District Court after being charged last October with criminal defamation.

Mr. Kato, who was the Seoul bureau chief of the conservative Japanese newspaper Sankei Shimbun until recently, is accused by prosecutors of defaming President Park Geun-hye. In an article published last August, Mr. Kato cited rumors that the president was having a tryst while the Sewol ferry sank in April, claiming 304 lives. Mr. Kato pleaded...