One Piece. Naruto. Dragon Ball. These are just some of the iconic manga that have graced Shonen Jump. If you've made it in Shonen Jump, you've made it in Japanese manga. One young female manga artist wanted her work serialized in Jump. Instead, she allegedly ended up with sexual harassment.
According to Japanese site Tantei File, a young woman wrote online about her experience with a Shonen Jump editor. As Tantei File points out, the allegations have not been confirmed.
Hoping to get published, she took her illustrations to Jump. While talking to a Jump editor, the woman claims he touched her.
"At first, I was like, 'What's with this guy?'" she wrote. "But then was like 'Well, whatever.'" The guy seemed interesting enough, so she brushed it off.
After an 11-month gap, she returned to Jump. While saying that he remembered her because her work had "impact", the editor is quoted as saying, "What's more, you're a cute girl with large breasts." The editor, the manga artist writes, then touched her, and she apparently then said, "You touched me last time, too?" The editor supposedly said, "Ah, you noticed?" with a laugh.
"How sad is it that the manga wasn't what he praised," she wrote, "but that..."
Tantei File reached out to Jump's publisher Shueisha about the incident. Shueisha said this was the first it had heard of such an incident.
The manga artist's blog post recounting her experience is still online. While this particular incident has not been confirmed or denied, one must be brave to speak out against sexual harassment—especially in Japan.
少年ジャンプ編集者がセクハラ？新人漫画家が暴露 [探偵ファイル]
(Top photo: kawasaki)
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