Shogakukan released a new statement on Monday related to the issue of its Manga ONE editorial department allowing manga creator Shōichi Yamamoto to publish a new manga on the service under a pen name, after he had been arrested and convicted of a sex crime.

In the new statement, Shogakukan stated that in response to the incident, it has been conducting an internal investigation. In the process, it has discovered that the Manga ONE editorial department also needs to investigate the process and verification system for hiring the original creator of the Seisō no Shinri-shi (The Counselor Through the Years and Stars) manga, which is currently serialized on the Manga ONE service. Itsuki Yatsunami (name romanization not confirmed), the manga's original creator, is the pen name of act-age manga writer Tatsuya Matsuki, who was arrested and indicted on the charge of committing a coerced indecent act on a female middle school student in 2020.

With the new discovery, Shogakukan has decided to establish an external committee to understand the circumstances surrounding Shōichi Yamamoto and his works that were canceled and serialized on the service, the circumstances surrounding the involvement of the editor-in-charge in the settlement negotiations with the victim, and to confirm the Manga ONE editorial department's hiring process for writers and original authors. The external committee will also confirm Manga ONE editorial department's awareness of human rights, examine the problems, investigate the causes, and give recommendations for preventing recurrence in the future. Shogakukan will release more details regarding the external committee at a later date.

The Manga ONE editorial department also explained how the original creator of Seisō no Shinri-shi manga Itsuki Yatsunami was appointed, including details of his case, with his consent.

On August 29, 2024, an editor at Manga ONE requested a meeting with a person who has an X (formerly Twitter) account under the name of Tatsuya Matsuki. Then, on August 30, Matsuki sent an email to the editor informing them that he was writing a novel titled Yūsha Ikkō no Shinri Counselor (Adventurer Party's Psychological Counselor) on a novel submission site. That novel would eventually become the basis of the current Seisō no Shinri-shi manga. With the approval of the editor-in-chief at the time, the editor held the first in-person meeting with Matsuki in Tokyo on September 6, 2024. The editorial department said it first confirmed that Matsuki's sentence had been finalized and his suspended sentence had expired, that he had remorse for the incident and his efforts to prevent a recurrence, and the status of his support from experts for his reintegration into society. (Matsuki was given a suspended sentence for three years, which meant if he remained on good behavior for three years, he would not serve time in prison.)

At that point, Matsuki expressed concern about using his old pen name and how it would possibly evoke memories of the incident for the victims. Shogakukan stated the Itsuki Yatsunami pen name was initially chosen out of consideration for the victims so they would not be revictimized.

The editor reported the meeting's contents to the then editor-in-chief, and after their approval, Yatsunami and the editor began communicating with the goal of publishing his work on Manga ONE. Only a small number of people in the editorial department were aware of the facts about Yatsunami.

Shogakukan stated Yatsunami has been receiving psychological counseling since the incident, and the psychologist in charge of him has determined his mental treatment and rehabilitation had been sufficient. Shogakukan then decided his past conviction should not be a reason to deny his return to society.

Shogakukan also clarified that it explained Yatsunami/Matsuki's situation to the manga's artist, Kaoru Yukihira. Yukihira was also made aware of the risks of what could happen if the truth were to become public, and Yukihira still decided to take on the job of drawing the manga. Yukihira also was consulted before Monday's announcement.

While Shogakukan insisted its decision to have Matsuki use a penname for the new work was always intended to be at the best interest of the victims, the company admits that the Manga ONE editorial staff should have given more consideration as to whether this decision was truly in consideration of the victims.

Shogakukan stated it has temporarily suspended updates for Seisō no Shinri-shi, starting on Monday.

Shōichi Yamamoto Scandal and Shogakukan's Response

On February 20, the Sapporo District Court handed down a ruling in a civil case ordering a man to pay 11 million yen (about US$71,000) in damages to a woman in her 20s, who claimed that Yamamoto repeatedly sexually abused and raped her while she was in a distance-learning high school in Sapporo and while he was a teacher at her school. The woman originally filed the civil suit in July 2022.

According to the Okayama-based economic media outlet "Ashita no Keizai Shimbun" (Tomorrow's Economic Newspaper) on February 25, the defendant, named Shōichi Yamamoto, is the same as the manga creator of the manga series Daten Sakusen.

Other news outlets reported that in February 2020 a summary court convicted Yamamoto of violating the Child Prostitution and Pornography Prohibition Act and he was ordered to pay a penalty of 300,000 yen (about US$1,900).

Yamamoto began serializing Daten Sakusen on Manga ONE in February 2015. The manga went on hiatus in February 2020, and was removed from Manga ONE in October 2022.

However, in 2022, Manga ONE started serialization on writer "Hajime Ichiro" and artist Eri Tsuruyoshi's Jōjin Kamen manga, even though "Hajime Ichiro" and Shōichi Yamamoto were the same person. Manga ONE announced on Friday it has halted digital distribution of the Jōjin Kamen manga, and also halted shipments of the physical compiled volumes of the manga. Shogakukan stated it should not have hired "Hajime Ichiro" as the original writer of the manga.

Shogakukan also noted that during the civil case that ended on February 20, a manga editor participated in the settlement negotiations, advising that the parties hire a lawyer to prepare notarized documents for the settlement. Other news outlets reported the manga editor advised the notarized documents include the condition the female victim could not disclose the matter, and also proposed that Yamamoto pay 1.5 million yen (about US$9,700) as settlement.

Manga ONE and Shogakukan both apologized to readers and other creators who contribute to Manga ONE, stating it will set up an investigative committee that will include lawyers to clarify the facts of the situation, particularly to understand how the manga serialization began and the involvement of an editor in the settlement negotiations.

Manga Creator Backlash and Event Postponement

After Manga ONE published its statement on Friday, and after Shogakukan published its statement on Saturday, many manga creators took to social media to criticize the statements and Shogakukan in general, and many stated they would pull their manga from the Manga ONE platform.

As of press time, several high-profile manga works such as Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, and several works by Rumiko Takahashi such as Maison Ikkoku and Ranma 1/2, are not currently available on Manga ONE. It is currently unclear if the manga becoming unavailable on the service is related to the recent scandal, and ANN cannot verify if the manga were inaccessible before Manga ONE's initial statement on Friday.

The Kyodo news agency reported on Sunday that Shogakukan has postponed the ceremony for the winners of the 71st Shogakukan Manga Awards, which was scheduled to be held on March 3.

Sources: Shogakukan via My Game News Flash, 47 News/Kyodo, IT Media