News

Kosaku Shima Manga to Be Revised After Depicting Man Paid to Protest Against U.S. Base

Kodansha's Morning magazine, manga creator Kenshi Hirokane, and the editorial department issued an apology on Monday for the latest chapter of Hirokane's Shagai Torishimariyaku Shima Kōsaku (Outside Director Kōsaku Shima) manga published last Thursday in the magazine's 46th issue. In the chapter, with regards to a new U.S. base being constructed in Nago in Okinawa, a character comments that there are many people who protest against U.S. bases in Okinawa as part-time workers, and that he was once also hired to protest for a daily wage. The staff will revise the manga's content when it is published in a compiled book volume.

For this chapter, creator Hirokane and the editor in charge traveled to Okinawa for research, specifically on the tourism industry. During their travels, they heard from several local residents that there were part-time jobs for people to oppose new U.S. base construction. Although this was unconfirmed hearsay, the staff depicted the information as definitive. Even though the manga is fictional, the staff reflected that it was careless to have a character say that many people including himself were hired as part-time workers to protest against a U.S. base.

Following the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty in January 1960, a revision of a treaty signed following World War II, U.S. military bases have been allowed on Japanese soil, leading to protests of the U.S. bases.

Since 1983, Hirokane has been depicting the corporate rise of a Japanese executive named Kōsaku Shima. With every change in job title the main character receives, the manga title also changes. Sequels include Division Chief Kosaku Shima, Managing Director Kosaku Shima, Executive Managing Director Kosaku Shima, Senmu Shima Kōsaku, President Kosaku Shima, Chairman Kosaku Shima, and Senior Adviser Kosaku Shima. The current ongoing manga is Shagai Torishimariyaku Shima Kōsaku (Outside Director Kōsaku Shima), which started in March 2022 in Kodansha's Morning magazine. Kodansha published two bilingual volumes of Shachō Shima Kōsaku in 2010.

The series has inspired anime, spinoffs, games, and live-action adaptations as well. A short live-action series titled Kachō Shima Kōsaku no Tsubuyaki (Section Chief Kōsaku Shima's Posts/Tweets) began on October 7.

Sources: Morning, Kyodo News via Yahoo! Japan, Yaraon!