The agency of cultural affairs (Japan) seems to think so.
Mainichi Daily News has the scoop on Yoshiko Wada's supposed plagerization of a work by Italian painter Alberto Sughi.
Under normal circumstances, the issue might've been dismissed (really, is either painting worth going ga-ga over?) - But the 'stolen' work helped Wada win a prestigious Education Minister's award.
Slap on the hand? ten years in sing-sing? How do you punish this?
So we have one mediocrity stealing from another -whose work looks like a pastiche of a whole lot of other, far better work.......are we supposed to care about this? They both suck.
Precisely. When the blind lead the blind........
Make him hang the work in his home and look at it for 5-10 years. But what does it say about Japan that you can get a prestigious award for this work?