Mandarake used bookstore branches banned from selling adult entertainment items for 180 days

Ruling by Public Safety Commission targets Tokyo shops that sold pornography with “obscene material.”

Mandarake is best known for its used manga and anime art books, but really the chain has a massive selection of secondhand pop culture merchandise and entertainment media, including CDs, board games, toys, and magazines. They sell just about anything, and that all-encompassing inventory policy has landed Mandarake in trouble with the law.

Mandarake also deals in back issues of “binibon,” pornographic magazines wrapped in obscuring vinyl covers. In 2021 and 2022 Mandarake was found to have sold six books containing “obscene material,” the sale of which is prohibited by law, and in May the Tokyo Metropolitan Police filed indictments against the president of Mandrake as well as four other employees.

The exact nature of the material isn’t being disclosed in public reports, but at the time of the indictments Mandarake put out a statement of apology, adding that “at the time of their original publication, these [binibon] were not illegal.”

The six books were sold for a total of approximately 74,000 yen (US$532) at two Tokyo Mandarake branches, one in Shibuya Ward and the other in Nakano Ward. After deliberating on the matter, the Tokyo Metropolitan Public Safety Commission has handed down bans to both stores that prohibit them from selling “adult entertainment items” for 180 days, starting on November 18 and continuing until May 16. Mandarake’s president and the other indicted employees will not be individually charged with any crimes, though, and the company says it does not plan to appeal the Public Safety Commission’s decision.

Source: TBS News Dig via Livedoor News via Jin, Oricon News, Nikkan Sports
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