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TBS Producer's Kidnapping Charge Dropped

The Shizuoka District Public Prosecutors Office on September 21 dropped charges against Yo-Kyō, the 30-year-old staff member of TBS Television's film and anime department who was arrested on suspicion of kidnapping a middle school girl earlier this month. However, TBS Television revealed that, as a result of its own investigation, it has fired Yo-Kyō for violating work regulations.

The prosecutor's office did not announce a reason for the dropped charges, but NTV reported that someone close to the matter said a settlement was reached outside of court.

According to the police at the time of the arrest, the suspect took the victim from her Shizuoka home to his Shibuya home in Tokyo from mid-August until September 2. The girl's family filed a missing person's report in mid-August. The police found Yo-Kyō and the girl further north in Sapporo City on the morning of September 2. The police arrested the suspect on the spot, and brought back the girl unharmed.

The public relations department of TBS previously reported that Yo-Kyō joined the company in April 2015. He is listed in the credits of the first episode of the ongoing Seven Senses of the Re'Union television anime as the show's publicity producer. He appeared in the live-streamed tie-in specials for the anime in July. The specials credited him as a Seven Senses of the Re'Union producer for TBS. He also appeared on a June episode of the live-streamed Tsuzukimi program to introduce a promotional video with the cast, before the anime's premiere.

Sources: TBS, NTV News 24 via Yaraon!