Producer of hit anime films arrested due to alleged underage sex offenses

TW: Mention of underage sex offense.

The producer of global hit animé films “Your Name” (2016) and “Suzume” (2022) Koichiro Ito, who works under Tokyo’s Comix Wave Films, was apprehended due to allegedly paying an underage girl to commit a sexual act with him.

Reports from investigators say Ito offered a 17-year-old high school girl from Yokohama, Japan ¥30,000 (Php 11,079) to have sexual activity with him at his home, then filmed and photographed them doing it, all while being aware the girl was below 18 years old.

The 52-year-old film producer told investigators, “I met at least 20 girls on social media and paid them to have sex.”

Wakayama Prefectural Police previously arrested Ito on February 21, 2024, on suspicion of producing child pornography.

Citing the report of Wakayama Police, Ito faces allegations of asking a teenage high school girl he met online to send him inappropriate photos in September 2021, and the producer is believed to be aware that the girl was underage when he requested the photos, says one of Japan’s leading national papers, The Mainichi.

Japanese broadcasting corporation NHK reported that Ito has generally confirmed the charges filed against him.

“I have received images from underage women several times in the past, but I can’t remember which one this time belonged to,” he admitted to the authorities.

However, the reports Mainichi and NHK published about Ito’s case have been taken down without further clarification.

Additionally, police began investigating the producer when his name appeared in a separate child prostitution case in 2023.

Tokyo’s Comix Wave Films is the home of Japanese filmmaker and novelist Makoto Shinkai, who has produced movies since “Voices of a Distant Star” in 2002 and “Weathering With You” in 2019.

With reports from Marvin Cabalhin