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As manga readers and fellow artists are still reeling from the shock of the recent Shogakukan cover-up (complete story here), it has come to light that the Jojin Kamen author was not the only sexual offender working under a pen name on the platform, raising serious questions about the integrity of the editorial department at Manga ONE.
Shogakukan released yet another statement on March 2, 2026, confirming that the author of Seiso no Shinrishi writing under the pen name Itsuki Yatsunami is the author of Act-Age manga Tatsuya Matsuki, who was previously convicted for assaulting a minor.
The editorial team admitted they proactively reached out to Matsuki in August 2024, despite having full knowledge of his 2020 conviction for committing indecent acts against a middle school girl.
Shogakukan has since issued a public apology, acknowledging that its approach to Matsuki’s social rehabilitation may have caused secondary trauma to the original victims.
Editors Hired Act Age Author Despite Knowing His Past
The timeline provided by the editorial department reveals that a Manga ONE editor contacted Matsuki through his former X (formerly Twitter) account on Aug. 29, 2024, to request a meeting.
Matsuki informed the editor the following day that he had been independently writing a novel titled Yusha Ikko no Shinri Counselor on a novel-posting site, which has since served as the original draft for the manga Seiso no Shinrishi.
During their first in-person meeting on Sep 6, 2024, the department approved the adaptation and agreed to Matsuki’s request to use the pen name Itsuki Yatsunami to distance the work from his criminal past.
While the editorial team claims the pseudonym was intended to avoid triggering victims, the lack of transparency allowed a convicted offender to return to a position of influence without public oversight.
Shogakukan confirmed that only a select few within the department were aware of the author’s true identity during the recruitment phase. The series’ artist, Kaoru Yukihira, was also informed of Tatsuya Matsuki’s identity and past conviction before agreeing to work on the manga.
The publisher defended its decision by noting that Matsuki’s three-year suspended sentence had expired and that he had been undergoing professional psychological counseling.
The editorial department stated they were moved by Matsuki’s “strong feelings of atonement” and determined that his rehabilitation was sufficient to justify his reintegration into the industry.
Despite this internal justification, the publisher has announced the temporary suspension of Seiso no Shinrishi updates effective immediately. A third-party committee has been tasked with investigating Shogakukan’s editorial standards and determining whether the decision to hire Matsuki was appropriate given the nature of his crimes.
Matsuki was arrested in August 2020 after CCTV footage confirmed he had inappropriately touched two female middle school students, leading to the immediate cancellation of his hit series Act-Age by Shueisha.
Shogakukan is already facing a lot of backlash for the cover up involving Jojin Kamen creator, with fellow artists and authors calling out the publisher for its actions and pulling their works from Manga ONE platform.
However, these two authors are not the first to be allowed to publish after being convicted of crimes involving minors.
In 2017, Rurouni Kenshin creator Nobuhiro Watsuki was charged with possession of child pornography, leading to a brief hiatus before his series resumed serialization in Jump SQ, while Toriko author Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro also successfully returned to Weekly Shonen Jump following a 2002 conviction for violating child prostitution laws.
