Shueisha Inc., one of the largest manga publishers in Japan, claims to have incurred serious losses due to the actions of a single woman who placed thousands of orders on the company’s online store and either rejected them when they arrived or let them be canceled automatically by failing to complete the payment. The culprit reportedly ordered merchandise worth about 4.3 billion yen ($27 million) without paying a single cent.
Mayu Yoshida, a 32-year-old restaurant worker from Osaka, was recently arrested for disrupting the commercial activities of Shueisha Inc. by using no less than 238 different accounts to place thousands of online orders knowing full well that she would never complete them. Between 2024 and 2025, Yoshida reportedly placed over 2,000 orders for merchandise worth about 4.3 billion yen ($27.2 million).
Japanese investigators discovered that Mayu Yoshida took advantage of Japan’s convenience store prepayment system, which allows people who don’t have or don’t want to pay with a credit card to place an order but pay for it at a convenience store, with the seller shipping the item once payment has been confirmed. After a certain time passed without the buyer picking up the product, the order was canceled automatically, but the company still incurred logistical losses.
Alternatively, Yoshida also selected cash-on-delivery when ordering products from the Shueisha online store, only to reject them when they arrived. All in all, the company estimates that the woman’s antics caused a net loss of around 7.5 million yen ($47,000) in fees, not to mention other potential sales when the products she ordered were listed as “out of stock”.
Mayu Yoshida was arrested on Tuesday, following a year-long investigation. Confronted with the evidence, she admitted to placing over 2,000 orders from 238 different accounts, but insisted that it was just a way to cope with the stress in her life.
“I do not have any resentment towards Shueisha,” the 32-year-old woman said. “I have been feeling stressed from daily life, and I felt a sense of satisfaction and refreshment from ordering items before they sold out.”
Perhaps she sould try one of those fake online shopping platforms to deal with her shopping addiction.
