By South China Morning Post | Created at 2025-03-04 02:56:27 | Updated at 2025-03-04 07:34:23
4 hours ago
A producer of the hit Japanese anime film Your Name has been handed a four-year prison sentence on charges of obscene acts towards minors.
Koichiro Ito was convicted for “violating laws on child prostitution and pornography” as well as non-consensual sex and filming indecent images, a Wakayama District Court spokesman said on Monday.
The sentence was handed to Ito, one of the producers of the critically acclaimed 2016 film, on Friday.
Regional broadcasters said Ito was accused of paying a 15-year-old girl 20,000 yen (US$130) for sex in 2023, and demanding that another teenager take and send him explicit photos of herself.
Prosecutors had sought six years in prison for Ito, who pleaded guilty in the first hearing, broadcaster KTV said.
Your Name, directed by Makoto Shinkai, was a huge commercial success in Japan, and won Best Animation at the 2016 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards.
