A study conducted by the Content Overseas Distribution Association, a Tokyo-based watchdog, has revealed that online piracy of Japanese entertainment, such as manga, anime, and video games, caused losses of approximately 2 trillion yen in 2021, representing a five-fold increase from 2019, the publication Japan Today reported. The significant increase is attributed to two key factors: people spending more time at home during the COVID-19 pandemic and greater adoption of streaming services. As a result, the association believes that online piracy of Japanese entertainment will continue to be a significant issue in the future.
The Content Overseas Distribution Association’s study surveyed four entertainment categories – video, published content, video games, and music – through market surveys and consumer questionnaires. The association estimated that the losses to rights holders in 2021 ranged from 1.9 to 2.2 trillion yen. The largest proportion of losses was from anime and other video content, which was estimated to be between 906.5 billion to 1.4 trillion yen. Manga comics and other published media were projected to have lost between 395.2 billion to 831.1 billion yen. The findings highlight the growing impact of online piracy on Japanese entertainment industries and the need for increased efforts to combat it.
The Content Overseas Distribution Association was established in 2002 with the backing of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Agency for Cultural Affairs to prevent copyright violations of Japanese media content. It has members from the music, film, and animation industries, among others. The association has recently intensified its crackdown on piracy websites by collaborating with cybersecurity professionals and concentrating on identifying the individuals behind such websites.
The association’s efforts to fight piracy have yielded some success, as evidenced by a recent incident. On Thursday, the association announced that Brazilian authorities had shut down 36 websites that hosted pirated Japanese anime for local viewers. This marks the first instance where foreign sites hosting content for local viewing have been taken down after the association’s member companies filed criminal complaints. This success highlights the importance of international cooperation in combating copyright infringement and protecting the rights of content creators.
The association stated that the website had been running for more than a decade and had a significant impact on the industry. The association had reportedly filed a criminal complaint against the website’s operator in 2019, following which the Chinese authorities launched an investigation. The authorities ultimately seized the servers and arrested the operator, who had been distributing pirated Japanese anime to users in Japan via a subscription service. The association said the operator had earned over 60 million yen from the illegal service.
With a keen interest in tech, I make it a point to keep myself updated on the latest developments in technology and gadgets. That includes smartphones or tablet devices but stretches to even AI and self-driven automobiles, the latter being my latest fad. Besides writing, I like watching videos, reading, listening to music, or experimenting with different recipes. The motion picture is another aspect that interests me a lot, and I'll likely make a film sometime in the future.