The Wakayama Prefectural Police arrested 52-year-old Koichiro Itou, the producer who is well known for producing Your Name (Kimi no Nawa) movie on Feb 21, 2024 on suspicion of violating the Child Prostitution & Pornography Law Japan.

According to the police, Itou coerced a 15-year-old high school girl from Nagano who he met on an SNS platform to send her nude selfies, even though he was aware that she was a minor. This incident occurred in September 2021 and the producer is even suspected of offering 12,500 yen in cash in order to get the images.

Itou’s actions came to light when the cops were looking into another child prostitution case.

Itou admitted to the charge, however he stated he “cannot remember if it was this girl” because he had similar exchanges with others.

The police are further investigating this matter to find out if there were more victims as more images & videos were found in his possession.

Itou is a consistent collaborator on Shinkai works at Comix Wave, including Your Name, Weathering with You & Suzume. He has worked on the director’s previous movie instalments. He met the director first while he was working on The Place Promised in Our Early Days.

Source: TBS Newsdig