This year's 40th issue of Shueisha's Weekly Young Jump magazine is announcing on Thursday that manga creator Junko Nakano passed away at 4:55 a.m. on July 28 due to ischaemic heart disease. She was 45. Despite being rushed from her home and given the medical staff's best efforts, she passed away at the hospital.

Weekly Young Jump published Nakano's B-Shock! manga between 1998 and 1999, and [m]Chisa × Pon[/m] between 2001 and 2005. Just this past spring, she finished her 10-volume Hetakoi manga (pictured right), which she had launched in the same magazine in 2007.

Nakano had just added a new personal computer to her work setup, since she planned to try digital manga creation, starting with her next new series she was developing. Even though Nakano had made her manga debut when she was a student and had already enjoyed a successful career, the Weekly Young Jump editors said that she was exploring new possibilities for her own manga work.

Nakano's editors concluded by saying that since reading her works had moved people's hearts and gave them joy, they prayed from their hearts for her happiness in the next world.