News
Police Arrest 2 Men for Selling Fake Love Live! Sunshine!! Goods
posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
Police from Numazu City and Shizuoka Prefecture arrested two shop managers on Wednesday for their involvement in a shop that was allegedly selling fake Love Live! Sunshine!! merchandise in Akihabara, Tokyo.
The suspects allegedly offered hoodies bearing a logo similar to that of Aqours — the name of both the franchise's in-story idol unit as well as the real-life idol unit composed of the anime's voice actresses — and thus infringing on the copyrights of the anime studio Sunrise. Both suspects were male residents of Koshigayashi, Saitama, with one suspect being 55 years old, and the other 46 years old.
Police seized seven allegedly copyright-infringing hoodies on the day of the arrest, and are investigating how they were produced.
A Sunrise representative commented on the arrest, noting that it was "regrettable that [the suspects'] actions deviated from normal fan activity."
The Love Live! Sunshine!! The School Idol Movie Over the Rainbow film recently opened in Japan at #4. The film has sold more than 500,000 tickets and earned a cumulative total of 712,448,400 yen (about US$6.52 million) at the box office in Japan. The Aqours idol group charted its first #1 single in the previous week.
Source: Shizuoka Shimbun via Nijipoi
