Saiyuki manga creator Kazuya Minekura reported on her blog on Tuesday that she returned from the hospital without incident. She had placed her manga on hiatus and had undergone surgery for ameloblastoma, a noncancerous tumor on her right upper jawbone. She noted that she received thousands of paper cranes to wish her well, and even her doctors and nurses remarked that they have never seen so many before. She thanked everyone who supported her. While she is returning to life at home, she is still on hiatus from her manga work.

She already had a previous operation, but the latest surgery removed the right half of her upper jawbone. The teeth on that part of her jawbone and the bone between her nose and mouth were also removed. As a result, she cannot eat food well, and she also cannot pronounce words properly. While the surgery spared the bone around her left eye, she did lose part of the bone around her right eye. Also as a result of the surgery, she lost the sense of touch on the skin on the right side of her face for the rest of her life, although her facial muscles can move normally. Minekura is being fitted with artificial prosthetics to reconstruct the area around the lost bone.