WHAT HAPPENED?

31/08/06 - 03/09/06  Sakurai acted in a play with the theatrical group "JOY".  Title of the play was "ETERNITY" and they charged a fee of 3000 yen/person.
22/09/06 The group Joy2006 (featuring Sakurai) apologised because the script of  "ETERNITY" was not original and they plageriased.
01/10/06 Sakurai began his round of apologies in this order: A&G Tamariba (written), Comchat (radio), .hack (radio), Cherry Bell (radio). 
At the same time, 81 produce also posted the notice and apology on its main website.
04/10/06 The director of Joy2006 Nakao-san posted an apology on his own BBS.

THE SCRIPT IN QUESTION

"ETERNITY" was based on Mitani Kouki 's "Tokyo Sunshine Boys no Wana", which was the last play before the theatrical group Tokyo Sunshine Boys retired.  Mitani Kouki has a reputation for not letting other people use his script for whatever purposes.  He's so strict he actually filed complains even when high school students used his work for competition (non-commercial purpose).  In the end, even though that high school group won, they were thrown out of the competition.  Not only would he not grant permission to high school competition, permission was not granted even for cultural festivals (high school and universities) commercial or non-commercial wise.   Unlike his normal works, "Tokyo Sunshine Boys no Wana" was even more special because it was the last work of the group and so Mitani Kouki refused to have it published in any way.  There was only one time when he allowed the script to be replicated - for the purpose of winning the award for the play (12 years ago).

THE PROBLEMS

1. COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT
Probably a 10 year-old knows it's wrong to violate copyrights  in the 21st century.  ALMOST EVERYONE DOES IT (myself included... for instance by using Nara sensei's artwork on my blog) but usually for non-commercial purposes.  The problem with Joy2006 is that they took the script (however way they managed to obtain it), edited the script, and then sold it to the public.  The concept is somewhat like "doujinshi" but then in the case of doujinshi, at least the story and artwork would be original.  Their script was "edited" but not original enough so that people recognized that enough to force them to apologise on the webpage.  There is of course the question as to whether Sakurai is aware that the script he was acting in was not original.  From the way Ono Masaya spoke, it seems Sakurai doesn't know the script is a plagerised one but he has to take responsibility because he's the leading man in the theatrical troupe (his position is again reinstated in Kanemura's blog entry #1).  Of course, there are also hints suggesting that he might know about the script, because later I learned that Sakurai was really a Mitani fan himself.  Anyway, whatever the truth, it will be left in the dark, as truth always tends to be.  So let's just say Sakurai IS part of JOY2006 and the whole group has responsibility.

2. MITANI KOUKI
He's the scriptwrit of many TV shows and theatre shows, including Furuhata Ninzaburou (古畑任三郎) that started in 1994 and with a final episode in 2006, which at its peak has TV ratings of nearly 26% and could feature guests like SMAP.  T____T... In short, he's BLOODY BLOODY BLOODY FAMOUS (that's why he can deny the rights to his script even to high school students without being criticized).  This is the difficult part because apparently this guy has a good knowledge about seiyuu because he worked with seiyuu before.  He was also famous for working with NHK drama (and NHK's linked with 81 produce or Sakurai's company).  If Mitani knew nothing about seiyuu, maybe only Sakurai's theatrical career would be threatened.  However, the fact that he was one of the few scriptwrit who knew about seiyuu and hated anime otaku, it would make Sakurai's position even more dangerous.  Also, semed like "Tokyo Sunshine Boys no Wana" was more important than many other works because Mitani refused to publish it again in anyway and only reluctantly did that once for award purposes. Apparently, this had significant meaning for Mitani Kouki as well and who knows what kind of action he might take.

3. FAN'S REACTIONS
Sakurai's career depends quite heavily on a strong female fanbase and his fans have a reputation for being extremely loyal to him.  I'm sure there will still be many who will stick by him but we can't deny the fact that the relationship would be damaged in a way and even if it could be repaired, it would take time.   To make matter worse, from before, Sakurai already got some anti voices because of his recent attitudes (which I blogged about slightly before).  Well,  those attitudes could be annoying but they were okay because officially, Sakurai did not do anything WRONG and he was careful so far such that most of the time anti voices were just beneath the surface but never really got into "shape".  Unfortunately, this incident would give the anti people a lot of excuses to rise above the surfaces.  Not looking good.  The most damaging effect of course is to lose trust from his fans. 

THE CONSEQUENCES

As Kanemura already pointed out in HIS MESSAGE (#1)  Mitani Kouki's side protested against the use of his script without permission to Sakurai's company (81 produce).  The negotiations with Mitani Kouki has now completed (this is based on the telephone conversation between a fan with the 81 produce).  Here's the punishment that's been decided:

1) There will be a disciplinary period for Sakurai.   Exactly how long no one knows.  It's rumored it's till the end of this year but there's no evidence whatsoever.
2) Within this disciplinary period, he has to withdraw from ALL WORK.
3) All his radio shows (whether it be public like .hack, comchat, cherry bell) or membership only (Cyberphase Cyber Boys City) will be cancelled.
4) He cannot attend any event (and thus he could not attend the Maoh event either).
5) He could not appear in ANY magazine or write columns, etc. so those would also have to be cancelled.
6) His show scheduled on AT-X (Sakurai, laugh) is also cancelled.

The question now is ANIME, GAME, and DRAMA CDs (which feature not himself but the character).
* ANIME: Truth is 81 produce already gave out request to the producers for Sakurai to step down (again this is from the fan telephone conversation to 81 produce, one of which I actually downloaded and listened ^_^;; the girl who phoned was SO CUTE ^0^ ... but she said outright that Sakurai was a CRIMINAL and the woman at 81 produce just lost her words and did not start talking again until a minute or so later ;__;).  The girl must be very young (her voice's young to say such offensive thing because until proven guilty, anyone is innocent in the eyes of the law).   Problem is that the anime producers already started recording several episodes and it is impossible to find replacement or to re-record these episodes.  As a result, he will still feature in anime.  HOWEVER, there is still a possibility he COULD STEP DOWN in the future (especially at the change of seasons... DVD release, etc.).  As for new anime... he can't audition or take any offer of new anime during the disciplinary period.

* GAME & DRAMA CD: Still no information for games.  (Edited 06/10/06)  幸福喫茶３丁目, the cast is changed from Sakurai to Sugiyama... so ban is confirmed on new drama CDs.

APOLOGIES:

* Finally, Sakurai already apologised in several radio shows as stated in soubi_no_kissu ENTRY.  
* In addition, he also went to apologize to Mitani personally (which is something rather serious considering the fame of Mitani in Japan's entertainment industry) ... but it also seemed Sakurai has a really high "reputation" too ... to be given the opportunity to apologise IN PERSON ^0^.
* Nakao (the director of joy2006) also posted a short apology on the BBS of his own theatrical troupe (#3).  I won't translate word-by-word but the most important point from Nakao's apology is that he doesn't know about the whole business of plagerism but he has to take responsibility for NOT RECOGNIZING that the script he directs is a plagerised script.  This resonates with previous rumor that during the time of the play, he was busy with his own threatrical performances as well and so didn't have time to check the script.  There is ground to believe in his innocence (and the fact that his name is not on the formal apology also supports this possibility).

AFTERWORD:

This is my own personal reflections of the incident as I have been following it the moment it break out.  I think what went wrong this time is really how the situation was handled.   The apology first appeared on Joy's homepage on the 22nd of September (if my memory didn't fail me).  Since then, the discussion exploded in 2ch and yet there was no reaction from either 81 produce or Sakurai.  That's why many people went to .hack public recording just to see if Sakurai would apologise there... he did but it was not his apology... HASEO's apology (laugh).  Since then, the apology had been edited so what you see is already a refined version (with much stronger words than before).  I wonder why they didn't use such sincere words right from the beginning.

Then 81 produce... if only they reacted before the explosion on 2ch and elsewhere, it would be SO MUCH BETTER.  By dragging on for almost a week before even showing any sign of reaction, it just makes many people feel 81 is also part of this incident and it's not very good ... not only for Sakurai but also for other people working at 81 - including MikiShin, Seki, and Miyatan T__T.  Also, the lack of information meant complete chaos in the first week resulting in many fans even writing directly to say fellow seiyuu as Kanemura-san.  This isn't really going to help Sakurai AT ALL.  I hope 81 produce also learned from this situation and react quicker next time.  Had they make a formal apology earlier and cleared up the situation, more people will sympathize with Sakurai.  The way 81 produce handled this really hurt Sakurai more than save him. 

Edited (05/10/06): 81 produce went as far as forcing Kanemura-san to remove his entry in his blog, as well as Nakao-san's apology on the Dramatic Theatre Company's website (#3) to vanish.  I think this is a bit overreacted... woo woo... it's not really going to do any good hiding at this point of time.  By the way, this Dramatic Theatre Company is headed by Seki Toshihiko, who's will have a new play with Nakao in November.  Let's hope this incident won't affect Seki's theatrical troupe as he has NOTHING to do with the sad joy affair except the fact that Nakao will be an actor in his play in November...

As for the future of Sakurai, I wish him the best but it's important to bear in mind that this is a rather BLEAK situation (because trust is not easy to regain).  Konishi's a perfect example... Half year down the line (when his offense was saying just one inappropriate phrase... not even something that can be deemed "wrong" ...merely inappropriate) people still remember.  In Sakurai's case, this wound might take a much longer time to heal.  However, one will not mature if one has no obstacle and believe it or not, as one seiyuu said in his diary, "God will not give people obstacles that can't be overcome".  I hope Sakurai can overcome this obstacle, regain trust from his fans by working much harder than before and emerge once again as a more sincere person.  If you DO PRAY, then pray for him.  If not, then give him at least spiritual support.



REFERENCES:

The apology: http://www15.ocn.ne.jp/~joy2006/
Mitani Kouki's copyright policy: http://www.parco-city.co.jp/play/play_new/onegai/
About the script Sunshine Boy no Wana: http://d.hatena.ne.jp/peat/20060922
There is also an official statement on 81 Produce's homepage but it's pretty much the same as the one on Joy's homepage.

FOOTNOTES:

#1 This is my explanation (not word-to-word translation) of the message kaiba_katt san quoted from Kanemura-san's journal entry. 
Well, he's practically talking about the incident with Sakurai Takahiro. I've written a full explanation of what happened to Sakurai HERE if you are interested. In his blog entry, he simply said that his company's webpage finally posted the news about Sakurai's plagiarism, as explained in my post in depth. They got a serious complaint from Mitani sensei and also caused many people a lot of trouble.

He's currently working at the same recording studio as Sakurai and he remembers Sakurai as a very polite lower classman. Since they're working together, some fans wrote to ask him about the details of the case. He said he knew nothing about this particular incident and he could not say anything so please don't bother asking anymore.

He didn't know whether this is Sakurai's personal problem (meaning he plagerized or whether his theatrical group plagerized without himself knowing). However, there's 100% no ground to defend this action. As a fellow professional and colleague, he was deeply saddened by what happened and felt very miserable.

In his mind, he could only think of "why? for what reason?" And then as plaeski san also explained, not only in the entertainment world, such behavior is not acceptable socially. As for them whose products target the younger generation, they should be twice as cautious about (plagerism) than others.

What happened this time should be treated as a good lesson and he prayed that the situation could be resolved in a nice way.

----
#2 This is the transcript from the radio show with Ono Masaya about Sakurai.  Sorry no time for full translation but I highlight the important points.

小野坂：「知らんかったねぇ、こんなことあったとは。」
鹿野：「櫻井さんがまず舞台をやってることを知らなくて。」
小野坂：「櫻井君が劇団を起こしてるってことを知らなかったなぁ…joyっていうんだ。joyって（笑）櫻井君…えー、でも、櫻井君誰かにやらされてるんちゃうかなー？」
鹿野：「題材を選んだ方が誰かにも寄ると思うんですけどー。」
小野坂：「演出が中尾隆聖さんでしょ？あんな大ベテランの方が、その、なんやろ、無断でやったらあかん作品って知らんでやる、ってことがね…」
鹿野：「三谷さんに興味がなければ知らないかもしれないし、許可を取ってあるって思われたのかもしれないですね。」
小野坂：「大概さぁ、小劇場とかでやる舞台では戯曲が元々ある作品が多いのね。本が元々あるのを作家か演出家の人が起こして、ちょっとオリジナルっぽくし てやるのがほとんどなんだけど、相当書く人が面白くなかったら、とオリジナルなんて舞台にしたら全然面白くないからね。難しいですよ。だから有名な作家さ んも、いろんな昔の話から抜粋して、話を作ったりそれのパロディを作ったりしてみんなやってるじゃん。その中でもやっぱり、台詞がね、同じって言うのはあ り得ないですよ。ここに三谷さんの作者からのお願いっていう文章があるんですけど、自分の書いた戯曲は、書かなきゃいけないから書いてるんだと。プロ デューサーのためとか役者のためとか。だからそのギャグが活きるわけでしょ。でも例えば萩本さんのギャグをね、違う人がやったかて笑われへんやん。その キャラクターがあってこその言うてる台詞やのに、違う人が言うたら成立せぇへんでしょ。全員がモノマネをするなら成立すると思うんですけど、それは台詞を そのまま書くってことはあり得ないことなんですよ。そんでその櫻井君の方の謝罪文によりますと、三谷さんの作品がすごい好きだから、そういうのをやりた かったって書いてあるんだけど、それは作家のことそんなに好きやったら、自分の作品をほかでやられるのが嫌いやとかね、性格まで知っとくべきですよ。やる んだったら、”怒られてもええわ！”っていうぐらいでやらにゃ。謝罪文出して謝るんやったら、あきまへんよ。」
鹿野：「替える、とかじゃなくてストレートにやった方が良かったってこと？」
小野坂：「あ！替えたんやっけ？ハハハハハ！はぁ？なんでそないなことするねん！そらあかんわ（苦笑）それは作家が怒るわ。これはやったらアカンのちゃ う？それは怒るやろー。題名替えてやったらアカンわ、そら。そのまま（改変せずに）、三谷さんが大好きな我々が、あまりにも大好きでやりたかったんで す！っていうんであれば、絶対面白くはならんやろうけど、まぁ、でもしゃあないなぁ、って三谷さんも思うやろうけどね。題名替えたんや！何のために？これ やった人に訊きたいね。櫻井君に訊いても絶対何もわからへんやろけど（笑）これ、誰がやりよったんやろなぁ…でも中尾隆聖さんいてて、そこに気づけへん で…演出だけを頼まれたのかもしれないけど、」
鹿野：「全部の裏のことを処理した後で呼ばれたのかもしれないし。」
小野坂：「なのかもね。まさにそうおもったんやろ、感じ。誰か、これを知っててやったやつが。」
鹿野：「いるのかなー？」
小野坂：「逆に言うたらちょっと俺はこの櫻井君のjoyっていう劇団に、ちょっと同情するわ。まぁね、実際小劇場でやってるお芝居って、オリジナルモノも 多いけれども、自分が見て面白いって思ったモノをやるのも、暗黙の了解的に、まあええよ、みんな上手くなったらええやん、っていうことで、了解されている んですよ。」
鹿野：「大概のトコロはHPに許可を取ってくださいとか書いてありますけどね。」
小野坂：「でもおっきい劇団とかはさ、そんなことを意にも介してないのね。真似したかったら真似したらええやん、うちの役者に勝てる役者でやれんの？…っ ていうことですわ。だから歯牙にもかけないんですよ普通は。でも三谷さんは、座長でも演出家でもなんでもなくて、作家なんですよ。だから自分の脚本は他の 人に理解されたくはないんですよ。たとえ芝居を見て、面白くないこの台詞って思っても、そんなん理解されたくないんですよ。自分が思ってこう書いたんやか ら。だからそれを全部人にやられると、すごいヤなんじゃない。気持ちはわかりますよ。声優の世界でこうやって著作権で軽々しくやっちゃいけないですね。誰 か気づけよ、やる前に。2，3ヶ月練習してんのやろ？そん時に誰か言えば良かったのに、許可とってんの？って（笑）」

Source: http://syn.mari-fc.com/?eid=371046

#3 ドラマティックカンパニーのメンバーBBSに中尾の謝罪文きた

謝罪 投稿者：中尾隆聖 投稿日：10月 4日(水)01時38分4秒
先月のザムザ阿佐ヶ谷に於けるJOY公演に際し著作権の問題で多方面の方々にご迷惑をおかけしました事を心からお詫び申しあげます。
今回は同じ事務所の後輩の手伝いをするつもりで、軽い気持ちで演出の依頼を受けてしまいました。
その結果、長年この業界でお仕事をさせて頂いている人間として、最も大切且つ基本的な確認作業を怠ってしまいました。当然「知らなかった」では済まされません。
自分の芝居に対する考え方の甘さ、「作品」に対する愛情の欠如を改めて痛感いたしました。
今後、二度とこのような失敗を繰り返さぬよう猛省し、さらに精進してまいる所存です。
この度は本当に申し訳ありませんでした。