TOKYO, March 10 — A Japanese manga publisher has issued an apology following a furore after it rehired an author who has been ordered to pay US$70,000 damages for sexually abusing a teenager.
Publishing giant Shogakukan admitted yesterday it had rehired manga artist Shoichi Yamamoto two years after his arrest in 2020.
Yamamoto, who was also a high school teacher in northern Hokkaido region, was arrested in 2020 for sexually abusing a student and fined, according to Jiji Press and other media.
The publisher halted Yamamoto’s series following his arrest.
The woman filed a civil suit in 2022 and the local district court ordered Yamamoto to pay 11 million yen (US$70,000) in damages last month, according to the Asahi Shimbun daily.
Both filed an appeal.
Shogakukan also offered an apology directly to the woman—who was reportedly 16 years old at the time of abuse—it said in a statement yesterday.
“The woman developed PTSD following the incident and continues to suffer to this day. Consideration for the victim’s state of mind should have been the foremost priority but was entirely neglected,” the publisher said.
“The decision to re-employ Yamamoto… under a different pen name constitutes an act that disregarded the woman’s human rights,” it added.
The publisher will launch a third-party committee to investigate the issue.
The scandal has prompted other manga artists to suspend publication of their works on Shogakukan’s Manga One app that carried Yamamoto’s works, with one saying on X his action “is absolutely unforgivable”.
Shogakukan’s authors include Rumiko Takahashi, one of Japan’s best-known manga authors and creator of the popular “Ranma ½” and “InuYasha” series.
The Japan Manga Artist Association issued a statement late last month, calling the scandal “a matter of critical importance to the industry’s credibility”.
While there has been no major #MeToo movement like those in the United States and South Korea, rallies against sexual violence sprang up across Japan after several alleged rapists were acquitted in 2019. — AFP
