Publisher Shogakukan is facing backlash after publishing a child rapist in their Manga ONE app under a pseudonym, platforming him and allowing him to keep his career after it was known by the editorial department that he had sexually abused a minor.*
(*The illustrator who worked with him on his new series was not informed nor aware of any of this.)
Excerpting some details from here:
The history of the author of 'Jojin Kamen' Ichiro Hajime (whose real name is Kazuaki Kurita) was recently brought to light in a Civil Lawsuit that detailed charges of grooming and sexual abuse involving a minor.
According to court documents, Kurita was accused of grooming a 15-year old girl and sexually abusing her over multiple years. As this information from this course case was brought public, records of previous legal proceedings against Kurita had also resurfaced.
February 2020: Kurita was fined approximately $1900 after being summarily indicted for the possession of child sexual abuse material, in violation of Japan's Child Prostitution and Child Pornography Prohibition Act. Although he had taken pictures of the victim during the abuse, the charge he received solely resulted in a fine for the possession of these illicit materials.
May 2021: A mediation attempt took place involving an Editor from Manga ONE. Shogakukan stated that the Editorial Department itself did not take part as an organization. However, according to the statement made by Shogakukan author Eno Sumi, the mediator was believed to be editor Takuya Narita. The proposed settlement called for the victim to remain silent, offering her approximately $9.6k to cooperate. The proposal was rejected, and the victim filed a Civil Lawsuit.
2022: 'Daten Sasuken,' which Kurita had been serializing using the pen name Shoichi Yamamoto, went on break due to the author's "poor health." The series never returned despite the publisher's claims that this was temporary. Under the new pen name Ichiro Hajime, Kurita went on to publish 'Jojin Kamen'. With the entire situation swept under the rug by specific individuals at the Editing Department of Manga ONE, one which was previously alleged to be Narita, Kurita moved forward with the publishing company. Critics of the situation argue that failures within the Manga ONE editorial department allowed him to continue working under a different identity, despite his current legal situation.
February 20, 2026: The Civil Lawsuit finally came to a verdict with the court rejecting Kurita's claims that the abusive relationship was consensual. The court ordered him to pay approximately $70.5k in damages. Due to this case being handled in civil court, criminal prosecution was not involved. After the verdict was made public, several authors announced their departure from Shogakun's Manga ONE platform, including Eno Sumi.
According to the twitter linked above, mangaka who have removed their works from the Manga ONE platform include Yamada Kanehito and Abe Tsukasa (Frieren), Takahashi Rumiko (Inuyasha), and Owara Sumito (Eizouken), with Eno Sumi (After God) collating a timeline of events in Japanese, which can be found here.
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