Studio Ufotable’s Founder Charged with Tax Evasion, Read More

Cases of tax evasion have been recently on the rise due to financial issues caused by the pandemic. The most recent case of tax evasion has hit the anime department.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba’s studio Ufotable, has been found guilty of tax evasion.

Ufotable’s founder and president, Hikaru Kondo, has been accused of violation of the Corporation Tax Act and Consumption Tax Act. A total of ¥139 million have not been paid as tax.

Ufotable owned anime-themed restaurants in Tokyo and Osaka. According to a source of Mainichi Shimbun (Japanese newspaper), Kondo took around 30% of these restaurants’ profits and kept it stored at his house.

The ledger books of the company were then tampered with to hide the shortage of the proceeds. The unpaid tax money was then apparently used for investment in the company.

The tax evasion of the years 2015, 2017, and 2018 amount to a total of ¥446 million. Kondo’s representative lawyers then further clarified that Kondo has already paid the remaining tax. He apologized to the fans for the huge loss of trust caused by Ufotable.

Yet this is not the first time that Ufotable’s acts were under question. A search was performed on its offices in March 2019 due to alleged tax evasion.

In April 2019, Ufotable was accused of owing tax to the state, which amounted to ¥400 million. The studio has also been accused of misappropriation of funds from a charity program in the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake.

Ufotable is a Japanese animation studio which was founded in 2000 by Hikaru Kondo. Its headquarters is in Nakano, Tokyo, Japan.

The most famous anime under it is Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba and Katsugeki/Touken Ranbu. It produces anime, films and video games. Apart from this, the studio also runs some themed cafes where they sell anime merchandise.

Source: Mainichi