The Asahi Shimbun paper reports that author Manabu Miyazaki is suing the Fukuoka police for allegedly asking convenience stores to remove yakuza-related literature from their shelves.

According to Miyazaki, 73 manga volumes and three magazines had been removed from convenience store shelves in late December, with other stores soon following suit. Included in the list of removed material was a manga based on Miyazaki's own yakuza-themed memoirs. (Kotan published one of Miyazaki's books, Toppamono: Outlaw, Radical, Suspect, My Life In Japan's Underworld, in English.) Miyazaki, who said that these actions suppressed free speech, is demanding 5.5 million yen (about US$59,000) in damages. The Fukuoka police say that they were enforcing an ordinance meant to curtail the influence of the yakuza.