Three people, including Akira Ōta, who heads the editorial department at Core Magazine, have been arrested in Japan amid accusations of obscenity. Those arrested are being accused of selling magazines and manga that had sexual content which was insufficiently censored, a violation of Article 175 of the Japanese Penal Code, which forbids obscene content.
Ōta denies the charges, but one of the individuals arrested has reportedly admitted guilt. Anime News Network carried the story, describing the material that brought the charges:
The three suspects are accused of selling about 24,500 copies of the manga magazine Comic Mega Store with sex scenes between males and females this past March. They are also accused of selling about 36,000 copies of Nyan 2 Club, a magazine for reader-submitted adult photographs. Both magazines were marked with the 18+ label.
Earlier this year, the production of Comic Mega Store was indefinitely suspended, and Nyan 2 Club has been under investigation under Article 175. Both magazines have employed mosaic censoring, a Photoshop technique that pixelates sections of an image, to obscure content, but ANN reports that staff at Core had been warned that the amount of censoring was insufficient.
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