This screenshot from Yoko Ishikura's Twitter account shows her apologizing after it was pointed out that her website was using multiple sample images without permission.

       TOKYO -- The top bureaucratic official of Japan's Digital Agency, which was launched on Sept 1., has apologized on Twitter after a company operating a stock photography site pointed out she appeared to be using multiple sample images on her official website without permission.

       Yoko Ishikura, chief digital officer at the agency, who is also a professor emeritus at Tokyo's Hitotsubashi University, apologized over the use of the images from stock photography site "Pixta."

       The site has sample images watermarked with the company's logo, and users can buy images without watermarks. But according to the firm, Ishikura's website contained multiple sample images with watermarks. The use of sample images other than for their intended purposes apparently constitutes a violation of the terms of service.

       On Sept. 3, an executive officer of the company sent a message to Ishikura's Twitter account asking how the images came to be used. Later that day, Ishikura's account tweeted, "This is Yoko Ishikura. It was due to my carelessness, and I apologize. I'm very sorry. I will take care of it immediately." Ishikura's website at https://yokoishikura.com/ has since been temporarily closed, citing "advice regarding copyright."

       The company's public relations department explained to the Mainichi Shimbun, "It's a violation of the terms of service to use a sample image as it is, but we assume there are cases in which users forget to replace the sample image with the one they have purchased. It's also possible that the images were purchased under the name of another person, such as her secretary, so we think it's premature to pass judgement based on just the information we have now."

       A Digital Agency representative told the Mainichi Shimbun, "We're sorry for the confusion on this occasion. We at the Digital Agency will work to prevent a recurrence in the future."

       (Japanese original by Harumi Kimoto, Digital News Center)

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