Kazuo Koike Establishes New Company to Help Protect Intellectual Property of Japanese Manga

Kazuo Koike, author of popular series such as Lone Wolf and Cub and Crying Freeman, announced on the 10th the formation of Kazuo Koike Gekiga Sonjuku Co., Ltd., a one-man company based on the Gekiga Sonjuku program, originally established to educate new manga creators.

The new company (headed by Koike) was created for the education of new creators as well as for the protection and management of intellectual property of Japanese manga. According to the announcement, Koike has become increasingly frustrated with how he couldn't do much to protect his works from being used in foreign movies and other media.

The new company will focus on individual cases of copyright infringement, but will accommodate to the needs of other manga creators. According to Koike, "Spreading Japanese manga to other parts of the world is great, but stealing them for business purposes is something I cannot forgive."

Source: Yomiuri Shimbun