Via Mainichi: The Ibaraki Prefectural Police Cyber ​​Crime Division arrested Kotaro Hattori, a 40-year old office worker from Fukuoka, last 27th October 2020 for allegedly violating copyright laws by selling pirated DVD box sets of the hit anime “Kimetsu no Yaiba”. The suspect denied the charges, saying he thought what he was selling was “a genuine overseas edition”.

According to authorities, Hattori sold complete 3-disc DVD box sets of the TV anime adaptation of “Kimetsu no Yaiba” online, where he claimed they were official overseas editions with different packaging and lower image quality compared to Japanese editions. However, at the time Hattori was selling the box sets online, the Japanese edition box set was not even released yet.

Hattori is believed to have obtained DVDs from Malaysia by airmail, and the prefectural police seized about 200 pirated boxed sets — for a total of about 600 DVDs, through Osaka Customs. The price of the genuine product currently on sale is JPY 64,500, while the pirated version is just JPY 9,700. Hattori made a profit of about JPY 11.5 million from the sale of the illicit materials.