Japanese Fortnite YouTuber Nekokun arrested for cannabis possession

Written by. Nick Mosier based on the original Japanese article (original article’s publication date: 2022-04-13 15:04 JST)

Japan’s Metropolitan Police Department has arrested Yuudai Nishikawa for violating the country’s Cannabis Control Act (possession), the Asahi Shimbun reports. Nishikawa is a YouTuber who goes by Nekokun and is known for making Fortnite content. According to FNN Prime Online, Nishikawa has previously been arrested and prosecuted for cocaine possession and the cannabis found on him this time was while his personal belongings were being searched.

Nekokun is a content creator who has centered around making YouTube videos since around 2018. With a heavy focus on Fortnite content, the channel has nearly 900,000 subscribers as of this writing. In recent years, Nishikawa has also been active in the competitive scene, even participating in the Fortnite Champion Series. Nishikawa is also the owner of their own team called Mister Clan, which has a sponsorship with the gaming PC brand OMEN.

According to Asahi Shimbun, who contacted the investigators, Nishikawa is under suspicion of having 0.5 grams of cannabis hidden in rolled tobacco paper. Nishikawa admitted the charges saying, “I bought it in Kabukicho (a district in Shinjuku, Tokyo) two and a half years ago for my own personal use.” They added, “In order to not lose my focus and play poorly, I made sure not to smoke while making content.”
[Update 2022/04/13 18:33 JST] updated the paragraph above to clearly state the source of information.

After receiving the news, Captain Shota, a content creator that streamed with Nishikawa tweeted out, “I would like to speak after gathering my thoughts,” refraining from commenting on the situation. OMEN, a sponsor of Mister Clan, has also not yet released a statement about the situation.

[Update 2022/04/13 19:46 JST]
OMEN has announced that they are ending the sponsorship deal with Nishikawa (Nekokun) and Mister Clan.