Kenya Suzuki, the creator of the series Please Tell Me! Galko-chan (Oshiete! Galko-chan) has reportedly been arrested for importing child pornography from Germany.

According to Kyodo news, the 40 year old mangaka was arrested in Chiba Prefecture under suspicion of violating customs law. Newspaper Nishi Nippon went on to elaborate about the creator’s arrest; which included a statement from Suzuki who said:

“I really wanted to have nude photos of children from overseas that are not available in Japan.”

Translation: DeepL

The author was reported as missing earlier this month. Police in Japan are not required to report arrests immediately and can detain suspects for days at a time. It’s speculated that Suzuki was already in police custody when he was first reported missing.

Police reportedly confiscated over forty items from Suzuki which allegedly contain child exploitation material.

The manga for Please Tell Me! Galko-chan is currently released in English by Seven Seas Entertainment. At the time of publishing, Seven Seas has made no comment at the time of publishing on whether they intend to continue releasing Kenya Suzuki’s works in light of his arrest. Meanwhile the anime series was licensed and released by Crunchyroll.