The Japanese anime producer Koichiro Ito was arrested this week by Wakayama police and charged with soliciting nude images of a 15-year-old girl from Nagano he met online. The alleged incident occurred in September of 2021.
According to the Mainichi Shimbun, the 52-year-old Ito admitted he knew the young woman was a minor. “I had a similar exchange with another person, so I can’t remember if it was this girl or not,” Ito allegedly confessed. Police are still trying to identify the other victims.
Ito has been a close colleague of director Makoto Shinkai for many years, initially working with him on The Place Promised in Our Early Days. Ito also produced such films as Suzume and Your Name as well as The Garden of Words, Weathering With You, and Modern Love Tokyo.
Suzume has been described as “a modern action adventure road story where a 17-year-old girl named Suzume helps a mysterious young man close doors from the other side that are releasing disasters all over in Japan.” Your Name is a romantic comedy depicting the story of a male and a female high-school student who swap their bodies.
In a posting on X (formerly Twitter), Makoto Shinkai responded to Ito’s arrest by writing: “I have seen the news about the arrest of people related to my work, and I am deeply shocked. First and foremost, my heartfelt condolences go out to the victims. Additionally, I sincerely apologize to everyone who loves and supports the work for causing anxiety. While I believe that the value of the work will not be diminished by this recent incident, I understand that it’s only natural for people to be skeptical. It’s incredibly frustrating and sad.”
This is not the first such scandal to be reported in the manga/anime community. Last year, anime composer Hidekazu Tanaka admitted he was guilty of sexual assault, and his fellow composer Yuya Saito had earlier been arrested for sexual harassment. In 2017, Nobuhiro Watsuki, the creator of Rirouni Kenshin, was arrested for the possession of child pornography.
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