Police in Fukuoka arrested Wataru Adachi (37) on Saturday on suspicion of uploading unauthorized images from Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece manga to the Japanese manga piracy website Mangamura in May 2017.
Police stated a man believed to be Adachi contacted Fukuoka police earlier in August stating he wanted to turn himself in. Police arrested Adachi at Fukuoka airport, after he arrived there from the Philippines via Taiwan. Adachi has not admitted or denied the allegations, but has said he wants to speak with a lawyer.
Fukuoka police and other agencies arrested two people on July 10 for allegedly illegally uploading Chapter 866 of One Piece onto the website around May 29, 2017. The man and woman were reportedly friends of a 28-year-old male named Romi Hoshino, a.k.a. Zakay Romi, the alleged manager of Mangamura. The Philippine Bureau of Immigration took Hoshino into custody on July 7. Authorities have detained Hoshino at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City pending deportation proceedings. Japanese authorities had issued a warrant for Hoshino’s arrest, and they plan to arrest him upon his deportation to Japan.
In July, authorities said they also issued a warrant for the arrest of one other Japanese man in relation to the case.
