Man apologizes for selling fake “final instalment” of Doraemon cartoon series

Shogakukan Inc., publisher of the nationally popular Doraemon cartoon series, disclosed on May 29, 2007 that a 37-year-old man had apologized for publishing without permission a fake “final instalment” of the series. The man apologized also to Fujiko Puro, the copyright owner of the series. The apology was accompanied by payment of part of earnings from the sales of the fake instalment. The fake instalment has spread in the public by word-of-mouth-like networks on the internet since around 1998. In the fake story, the Doraemon robot becomes unable to move because of battery run-down. Nobita, a character in the cartoon, mends the robot after he has grown up to be a doctor of engineering. The man drew the cartoon by imitating the pictures in the original Doraemon and created the story of his own around the fall of 2005. He sold the book for about 500 yen a copy through the internet. More than 10,000 copies have been sold.