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Yamamoto still has not apologized for sexually victimizing the plaintiff.

The suit they’re pursuing is to shed light on Yamamoto’s crimes and prevent such cases of sexual misconduct by teachers from happening again.

They never said they “Cannot forgive Shogakukan” as stated in the title of the Bunshun article, (released March 6th) at the time they told Bunshun they feel “helpless” not that they hate Shogakukan.

Shogakukan directors came to their lawyer’s office and apologized to the victim for their handling of the matter via a phone call on March 6th.

They were able to have a civil conversation with Shogakukan.

They do not want MangaOne to dissolve, nor do they want manga artists associated with the app to suffer. They too enjoy Shogakukan manga and have been encouraged by manga.

They don’t want to see any further flaming of Shogakukan and preemptively state they do not want the Bushun to be criticized either.

Here is a direct link to her full statement in JP. I want to point out an addendum from the law firm at the end of the statement notes that there were multiple victims before her.

Of course there are many/varied reactions, but I'll highlight that many tweets have praised her courage for speaking up, the kindness and dignity of her statement, assuring that the criticism faced by Shogakukan is from their own mishandling, and any decisions made by mangaka and readers are of their own accord to express their protest of sexual assault in the industry, not her fault. Some have expressed concern that this kindness might be exploited for Shogakukan and its supporters to move forward without reflection or change. It's also been pointed out that neither the rapist, the involved editor, nor the Manga ONE editorial department have apologized.

Some tweet reactions under cut:

Shogakukan made a statement that this incident did not involve the whole company. They said they've started a 3rd-party investigation, and AFAIK there haven't been updates since then. (Source, with an English translation and link to the original statement)

From what I've seen, critical reactions are pointing out that either the concealment did reach to Shogakukan's highest levels, OR Shogakukan is so clueless that they weren't aware one of their departments was scrubbing the record of a child rapist.

Publisher Shogakukan is facing backlash after publishing a child rapist in their Manga ONE app under a pseudonym, platforming him and allowing him to keep his career after it was known by the editorial department that he had sexually abused a minor.*

(*The illustrator who worked with him on his new series was not informed nor aware of any of this.)

Excerpting some details from here:

Background

The history of the author of 'Jojin Kamen' Ichiro Hajime (whose real name is Kazuaki Kurita) was recently brought to light in a Civil Lawsuit that detailed charges of grooming and sexual abuse involving a minor.

According to court documents, Kurita was accused of grooming a 15-year old girl and sexually abusing her over multiple years. As this information from this course case was brought public, records of previous legal proceedings against Kurita had also resurfaced.

[...]

Timeline of Events:

February 2020: Kurita was fined approximately $1900 after being summarily indicted for the possession of child sexual abuse material, in violation of Japan's Child Prostitution and Child Pornography Prohibition Act. Although he had taken pictures of the victim during the abuse, the charge he received solely resulted in a fine for the possession of these illicit materials.

May 2021: A mediation attempt took place involving an Editor from Manga ONE. Shogakukan stated that the Editorial Department itself did not take part as an organization. However, according to the statement made by Shogakukan author Eno Sumi, the mediator was believed to be editor Takuya Narita. The proposed settlement called for the victim to remain silent, offering her approximately $9.6k to cooperate. The proposal was rejected, and the victim filed a Civil Lawsuit.

2022: 'Daten Sasuken,' which Kurita had been serializing using the pen name Shoichi Yamamoto, went on break due to the author's "poor health." The series never returned despite the publisher's claims that this was temporary. Under the new pen name Ichiro Hajime, Kurita went on to publish 'Jojin Kamen'. With the entire situation swept under the rug by specific individuals at the Editing Department of Manga ONE, one which was previously alleged to be Narita, Kurita moved forward with the publishing company. Critics of the situation argue that failures within the Manga ONE editorial department allowed him to continue working under a different identity, despite his current legal situation.

February 20, 2026: The Civil Lawsuit finally came to a verdict with the court rejecting Kurita's claims that the abusive relationship was consensual. The court ordered him to pay approximately $70.5k in damages. Due to this case being handled in civil court, criminal prosecution was not involved. After the verdict was made public, several authors announced their departure from Shogakun's Manga ONE platform, including Eno Sumi.

[end excerpt]