Japanese manga fans urge Trump to stop using characters he writes online | Japan

Japanese anime and manga fans are encouraged Donald Trump to stop using people they like on his social media posts.

About 20,000 people have signed a petition on Change.org entitled Protect Japanese Mangato challenge the official White House X account for posting videos showing the illegal use of images from the popular Dragon Ball, Yu-Gi-Oh! and the Naruto series. Angry fans have also been taking to social media.

The request was made in March and submitted to the Japanese government, according to its creators, after the White House posted a video which included pictures of the US in Iran and anime pictures. “Subsequently, the State Department requested the US Embassy in Japan regarding the use of Yu-Gi-Oh! games and Nintendo games on the White House X account,” the request read.

Official Yu-Gi-Oh! X News released a statement at the time, saying: “The creators and original anime were not affected in any way, and no permission was granted to use the intellectual property in question.”

However, a picture sent on Truth Social over the weekend portraying Trump as a ninja Naruto Uzumaki from the Naruto Franchise rekindled the fans, and revived the appeal on Tuesday and promised to strengthen the Japanese government.

“We are passionate fans of Japanese manga and anime works,” the petition said. It added that fans “have mixed feelings” about the “military drama, which was released on a US government social media account (which) combines images from Japanese manga and anime”.

Fan Matsui Qunishige wrote on Tuesday: “If you respect the creators and those involved and get their permission, I think it’s fine. Otherwise, you’re just showing yourself to be someone who can’t follow the rules and ignores culture. And that criticism will probably be in America. They are the ones who elected (Trump).

Another fan, Kei Fukuyosh, said: “I really want, from the bottom of my heart, for him to stop.”

Keiichi Motohashi asked: “I wonder what the copyright situation is with this?”

Shueisha, which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year, is Japan’s largest publisher and published the original Naruto manga from 1999 to 2014. The manga about a boy training to become a ninja has sold more than 250m copies worldwide. Kishimoto, whose twin brother, Seishi, is also a manga artist, is in charge of producing three Naruto anime films.

A spokesperson for Shueisha said that the copying of anime images used in the Trump campaign was done by the film’s production committee, and that they believed Kishimoto had no say in the matter.

The Guardian has contacted the White House about their response to the request.