On September 2, 2026, Masami Kurumada, creator of Saint Seiya, and three affiliated companies sued a former manager and ten other individuals and corporations at the Tokyo District Court, claiming about 2.886 billion yen in damages. The plaintiffs allege that about 4.686 billion yen, roughly 30 million dollars, left the companies over six years from around 2018. The losses surfaced not through any internal check but through an inquiry from the Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau in early 2024. This video explains how money flows around a global manga franchise, why the plaintiffs describe the former manager as both the keeper of the money and the gatekeeper of information, how the case compares with the Ippei Mizuhara and Eikichi Yazawa episodes, how Japan reacted on X, and whether Japan can build the ability to manage rights as fast as it builds the ability to sell them. Every figure is a plaintiff allegation that no court has yet tested.
※Japanese reactions are a sample of widely shared posts, not a measure of Japanese public opinion.
Full article: https://sekahan0623.com/en/global-reactions-en/saint-seiya-kurumada-46-billion-yen-lawsuit-ip-governance/
X (Twitter): https://x.com/sekahan_0623
This program is produced with synthesized narration (Voice: Google Cloud Text-to-Speech).
