Monster 9 Applies for Bankruptcy

According to Sankei Biz, Monster 9, the production company who created and produces (or in some cases produced) SASUKE, the Muscle Musical, KUNOICHI, Sportsman No. 1, Kinniku Banzuke and VIKING applied for bankruptcy on the 11th of this month.

The company is 35億6600万円 (3,566,000,000 yen) in debt. The debt is split between Monster 9 (18億600万円) and Digital 9 (17億6000万円). Some of the articles note that there may have been some accounting fraud going on. Update: Maybe not fraud but definitely window dressing (粉飾決算), which I'm not sure is illegal or not.

An article on Sanspo says that SASUKE's future is uncertain right now (there was currently no show scheduled to be made).

Earlier in the year, the Muscle Theater in Shibuya, the home of the Muscle Musical, was shut down due to fire hazard violations and the Muscle Park in Chitose, Hokkaido was shut down (it is now open under new management).

Currently, the Monster 9 and  Muscle Musical (update: it seems like some of the member sites are still up but the ones with the musclemusical in their addresses are gone) sites are down. The SASUKE Mania site is still up but any contact information has been removed.

Monster 9 was first created in 2005 and in 2008 it's profits reached 31.5 billion yen.

Update: Creditors have until December 16th to file and there will be a meeting on March 12th, 2012 at 1:30 PM. The lawyer who will act as the trustee is one Shuuji Kitagawa (北川秀二).

Quick clarification: For those asking about the type of bankruptcy in this situation, refer to here. All the articles refer to 破産 (hasan) or more specifically 自己破産 (jiko hasan) which is voluntary liquidation. See section IV of the link provided.

Update: List of known Monster 9 creditors. I don't think the list is complete. All numbers are in the 10,000s.

Other articles:

TSR
IT Media News
Zaikei
NetIB News
ANN News
Asahi
Nico Nico
Yahoo Japan