Danica Davidson
March 17, 2021 
Osaka Customs says that illicit drug smuggling has gone down in their area since 2019, but anime counterfeit goods — usually relating to Demon Slayer — have gone up. Osaka Customs has suspended these items from import because they break intellectual property law. Some of their findings are in the image above.
“In 2020, import suspensions were high with 6,343 confirmed instances, about 1.4 times higher than 2019,” the Japanese news outlet Mainichi explained. “Broken down by items, DVDs including Demon Slayer titles were up about 19 times over the previous year. Demand was apparently fueled by people refraining from going out amid the coronavirus pandemic.”
Other common counterfeit items were smartphone cases and character figures. There were also quite a few counterfeit baby slings, which worried officials, because the slings weren’t made to be strong enough to guarantee they could effectively carry a baby.
Source: Mainichi
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Danica Davidson is the author of the bestselling Manga Art for Beginners with artist Melanie Westin, and its sequel, Manga Art for Intermediates, with professional Japanese mangaka Rena Saiya. Check out her other comics and books at www.danicadavidson.com.
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