A restaurant employee in Japan is facing legal issues for allegedly selling unauthorized Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba merchandise and making a total of 10 million yen (approx. $77,000) between January 2020 and December 2021.
The Kanagawa Prefectural Police Department accused the 39-year-old resident of Funabashi, Chiba Prefecture, of violating Japan’s Copyright Law and sent papers to the prosecutors of the Yokosuka branch of the Yokohama District Inspection Office on May 16, 2022, on suspicion of infringement.
The woman was suspected of selling a smartphone case with a popular anime character printed on it for 1,430 yen (about $11) on a flea market app.
On Dec 22, 2021, she was allegedly caught with 64 other counterfeit items that she planned to sell. She admitted that she purchased the fake goods from a Chinese website.
According to police reports, the suspect confessed and was quoted saying, “My work [at the restaurant] had been reduced to once or twice a month due to the coronavirus. I intended to use the money to cover my living expenses.”
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Koyoharu Gotouge. As of February 2021, the manga had over 150 million copies in circulation, including digital versions, making it the ninth best-selling manga series of all time. It was also the best-selling manga in 2019 and 2020.
Both the manga and its anime adaptation have received critical acclaim. The anime series has received numerous awards and is considered one of the best anime of the 2010s.
In 2020, the Demon Slayer franchise generated an estimated annual sales revenue of ¥1 trillion ($8.75 billion), becoming one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time.
Source: Mainichi Shimbun
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