The Nagoya District Court’s Okazaki Branch has found Please Tell Me! Galko-chan author Kenya Suzuki was guilty after the trial on Tuesday, March 29, 2022, for violation of Japan’s Customs Act and possession of child pornography from Germany. Suzuki has been sentenced to a one-year and two-month prison term on a three-year suspended sentence.

According to Judge Ishii, the crime was “a malicious act that promotes the sexual exploitation of children and impairs the soundness of society.”

He is only given a suspended sentence taking into account social sanctions stemming from the crime.

On his official Twitter, the 40-year old mangaka stated that he has no intention of filing an appeal and “admitted the facts charged by the prosecution.”

Regarding the recent arrest, indictment and trial (English version) pic.twitter.com/J2QPcZUhv1

— 鈴木健也 (@suzuki_kenya) March 29, 2022

The Aichi Prefectural Police arrested Suzuki on December 2021, on suspicion of possessing child pornography. Kadokawa‘s ComicWalker service announced on Dec 24, that they suspended the serialization of Suzuki’s Please Tell Me! Galko-chan (Oshiete! Galko-chan) manga and its associated pages on the same day of the arrest.

Suzuki allegedly received six photo collections from Germany via international mail on two separate occasions in September and October of last year, violating Japan’s Customs Act.

Suzuki told the officials after his conviction that he “desperately wanted to acquire nude photos of foreign children that cannot be acquired in Japan.”

Suzuki launched the manga, Please Tell Me! Galko-chan (Oshiete! Galko-chan) on Kadokawa’s ComicWalker digital manga service in June 2014, but published on Twitter before that. The manga inspired a television anime that premiered in January 2015.

Source: Sankei News, Twitter