TOKYO
"Please Tell Me! Galko-chan" debuted in 2014, and the manga about high school girl Galko and her friends got a 12-episode anime TV series adaptation in 2016, has had five collected volumes published so far, and is still in continuing serialization through online manga service ComicWalker. All in all, it’s a solid success for Galko creator Kenya Suzuki, even if it hasn’t reached the cultural phenomenon-level of popularity as, say, "Demon Slayer" or "Attack on Titan."
Suzuki is now at the center of attention, though, from the police, as the manga author was arrested for importation of child pornography,
The 40-year-old Suzuki’s arrest stems from
a total of six photo albums containing nude photos of children that were sent to him from Germany via registered mail. The albums arrived in Japan split into two shipments, which arrived in September and October of 2020 and were discovered by customs officials in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture.
On Monday, Kyodo news service reported that Suzuki has been arrested on suspicion of importing prohibited items in violation of customs laws, and that a police search of his home in Funabashi, Chiba Prefecture, found 46 books containing child pornography. In regard to the books sent to him from
Germany, Suzuki told the police “No matter what, I wanted photos of nude children from overseas, which you can’t get in Japan.”