Japan police arrest 15-year-old who used ChatGPT to force-cancel 46,812 Bandai Channel accounts

A 15-year-old boy in Tokorozawa, Saitama, has been arrested by the Metropolitan Police Department's cybercrime unit on suspicion of obstruction of business by deception, after allegedly using a program built with the generative AI tool ChatGPT to force-cancel 46,812 paid subscriptions to Bandai Channel, the anime streaming service operated by Bandai Namco Filmworks. The arrest came in early July 2026, and the boy, a first-year high school student at the time, has reportedly admitted to the allegations. According to reports, the attack was carried out on the evening of November 4, 2025, when the boy sent fraudulent commands to the server to place a large number of member accounts into a canceled state.