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2 Men Arrested for Counterfeit Dragon Ball Heroes Cards

Akita and Kyoto Prefectural Police arrested two separate suspects on Tuesday, both on suspicion of illegally reproducing cards for the Dragon Ball Heroes arcade game.

The suspect in Akita is a 19-year-old male who had supposedly sold more than 1,000 copies of illegal reproductions. For example, authorities allege that the suspect sold eight cards through an Internet auction for about 6,900 yen (about US$61) to two male Akita residents in their 30s in January.

The suspect in Kyoto is a 38-year-old unemployed male who allegedly made 1.2 million yen (about US$10,559) in counterfeit sales from July 2015 to March of this year. For example, he purportedly sold seven Dragon Ball Heroes cards to three 17-year-old male high school students to earn 2,200 yen (about US$19). Police searched his home and seized his stash of counterfeit cards and manufacturing equipment. The suspect stated after his arrest that he was "aware that it was a crime, but it was simple to do, and an easy way to make money."

The latest installment in the Dragon Ball Heroes game series is Super Dragon Ball Heroes: Universe Mission, which Bandai released in arcades in Japan on March 8. The games inspired a promotional anime project that debuted with two episodes in July. The third episode debuted on September 5 and the fourth episode debuted on September 26. The fifth episode debuted on October 28.

Gifu Prefecture Police separately arrested seven individuals last month for their alleged connection to the sale of an unauthorized "cheating app" or using a proxy service for the Dragon Ball Z Dokkan Battle smartphone game app.

Sources: Tokyo Shimbun, The Sankei News, Nikkei