Japanese anime producer Koichiro Ito has been arrested by authorities for allegedly soliciting explicit photos from minors. Various local media reported that the 52-year-old Ito violated the law under Japan’s Child Pornography Prohibition Act.
According to police reports, he met a 15-year old female high school student in September 2021 on social media. During this time, Ito received explicit photos of the minor female student, and had the photos saved. Ito’s particular law offense falls under Japan’s Child Pornography Prohibition Act (Article 7) which outlaws any production, transport, import and export, as well as possession of child pornography.
Following his arrest, Ito acknowledged the allegations brought up against him, adding that he “have received images from underage women several times in the past“, but “can’t remember who this one belonged to.”
Koichiro Ito is known as the producer of several Makoto Shinkai films, including Children Who Chase Lost Voices (2011), The Garden of Words (2013), Your Name (2016), Weathering With You (2019) and Suzume (2022). Other anime works he served as producer and screenwriter include After School Midnighters (2012) and Hoshizora Kiseki (2006). At the time of this writing, neither Shinkai nor representative of Comix Wave have released any official statement regarding this news.
Source: NHK
Featured image: © Andrew H. Walker
The comments are temporarily unavailable for maintenance.