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Kanagawa Prefectural Police on Jan 24 filed charges with the Yokohama public prosecutor’s office against a 44-year-old man. The crime he stands accused of?
Illegal counterfeit anime girl huggy pillow cover trafficking.
According to Japan’s Association of Copyright for Computer Software (ACCS), the man, a resident of the town of Ofuna, Kanagawa Prefecture, was found to be in possession of 72 counterfeit items bearing the likeness of 12 characters from 10 different series, with a partial list from the ACCS indicating:
● "From Magia Record Puella Magi Madoka Magica Gaiden": Iroha Tamaki
● "From Dead or Alive 6:" Marie Rose, Honoka, Rachel, Christie, Hitomi, Leifang
● "From Granblue Fantasy:" Europa, Monika
● "From To Love-Ru Darkness:" Momo Belia Deviluke
As always, investigators arranged the evidence with all the care and precision of a top-notch anime specialty store setting up its table in a convention dealer’s room, in which we can also spot "Chainsaw Man’s" Makima and "Yu-Gi-Oh!’s" Dark Magician Girl. Oh, and there’s also "Evangelion’s" Asuka clamping her teeth down on what appears to be a permanent marker, which I’m just going to go ahead and assume is a fetish since I don’t need my search history getting any weirder than my line of work has already made it.
As for why all the pillow covers are folded into squares, well, going outside the bounds of officially licensed huggy pillow covers tends to result in a lot of exposed skin, and the purpose of the display is to tell the public “Look how much evidence there is!”, not “Check out these hot girls!” The man, who purchased and resold the covers online, stands accused of violation of copyright law, and has admitted to the charges. Prosecutors say they will be seeking “heavy punishment.”
At this point, some might be wondering why this is being treated as a crime while dojinshi, self-published fan comics that might use preexisting copyrighted characters, are so often given a free pass in Japan. While the police have made no official statement on the matter, the key factors in overlooking the copyright infringement represented by dojinshi tend to be quantity, timing, and distribution method.
Publishers and police tend to let dojinshi slide as long as its produced in small batches to be sold on-site at short-term events, like Tokyo’s Comiket. In this case, though, the pillow cases were being sold continuously over the Internet, and a search of the man’s house turned up roughly 600 more, in addition to the 72 he was initially found to be in possession of.
Between 2018 and last summer, when his operation was shut down, the man is estimated to have sold about 12 million yen worth of fake huggy pillow cases, which is apparently enough to cross the line from “fan creatively expressing their love for a series” into “just in it to make a pile of cash,” so all those confiscated covers are going to go unhugged and unloved.
Source: ACCS via IT Media, Yomiuri Shimbun
Read more stories from SoraNews24.
-- Tokyo woman in trouble with the law after selling high-priced Evangelion bootleg posters
-- HALOP: The Japanese huggy pillow for people who already have a human boyfriend/girlfriend
-- Free anti-embarrassment bags to be handed out at Comiket
- External Link
- https://soranews24.com/2023/01/28/japanese-police-file-charges-against-illegal-anime-girl-huggy-pillow-cover-seller/
20 Comments
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Michael Machida
Sigh...
Yubaru
All jokes aside here, PLEASE don't refer to this as "trafficking". Human trafficking is a deadly serious problem throughout the world and making light of it in this manner is wrong!
It's about the money
So, he knowingly purchased illegally copy-righted material and sold it for a profit. He wont go to jail, but I will bet he gets slapped with a heavy fine.
diobrando
And since years on yahoo auction fake sketches of famous mangakas and animators are sold.
https://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/h1079897353
Such draw should be sold 10 millions at least....
piskian
Open and shut case.
divinda
The term "trafficking" isn't exclusive to just "human trafficking". Hence the inclusion of the word "human".
How about "drug trafficking"?
Or "arms trafficking"?
Or "trafficking of stolen goods"?
wallace
Stealing other people's property without paying anything for the development of the product and then selling fakes to punters.
GBR48
TVK dared to show one unfurled. Maybe my bed linen cupboard has space for a waifu pillow after all. Although the ones pictured are of female characters, male ones sell well too. These could go mainstream and be the next big thing in the 'personal wellbeing' sector in the West.
SimondB
I won't be able to sleep tonight worrying about this.
Rodney
the person just wanted to make a living. My daily shopping bill is up 10-20%.
don’t understand what these are. Are they just a color piece of cotton or used for something hentai? Naïve guy here…
TokyoLiving
Needing one of those pillows??.
LOL..
David Brent
Grown "men" buy these.
WA4TKG
Looks like something a pre-teenager would buy
lostrune2
Search "dakimakura"
Red suns
Only a refined and genuine man of culture would buy something like this.
Randy Johnson
Just when you think that japan couldn't possibly get any pervier.
TrevorPeace
Who would ever want to hug a cartoon?
kaimycahl
Sick people copy and steal other peoples hard work!
GBR48
You'd be amazed how many BTS hug pillows sell to female fans (and some male ones).
Your hug pillow will never give you up, let you down, or run around and desert you. It won't make you cry, say goodbye, or tell a lie and hurt you.
They won't take half your stuff in a divorce, give you an STD or fart in bed. Surely happiness is a hug pillow.
theFu
I don't have a problem with people buying something like this.
I do have a problem with breaking copyright laws.
For people without a partner, they make body pillows so snuggling is possible for people sleeping alone.. Nothing wrong with that, if you feel the need.
Sheikh Yerboaby
Ofuna is not a town.....it's a train stop and is part of Kamakura city.