Japan is using AI to hunt down pirates making illegal manga & anime copies

by

Japan is using artificial intelligence to find people online who illegally share manga and anime, intensifying its efforts to combat piracy originating from outside the country.

Japan’s cultural agency is investing around $680,000 to create an AI that can detect and track down illegally shared manga pages. The South China Morning Post first reported the news, explaining the system will help identify where stolen manga is being distributed online.

The South China Morning Post reports that a system is in place to find manga content – images or text – that’s been illegally copied from published works online. When potential copyright violations are detected, they’re flagged for review. The next goal is to broaden this search to include websites outside of Japan, as publishers there believe most large-scale piracy is happening overseas.

Japan uses AI to hunt down pirated manga & anime

This effort is happening because online piracy remains a major problem for the manga industry. Just recently, MangaDex had to take down hundreds of titles after receiving numerous copyright complaints from publishers in Japan and Korea.

Last November, the official Jujutsu Kaisen social media warned that anyone illegally recording or sharing their new movie online could face hefty fines – around $65,000 – and even jail time.

Publishers are facing a major problem with leaks and illegal uploads appearing almost immediately after new content—like book chapters or movies—is released. These leaks are often quickly translated and shared around the world, even before the official release. To combat this, a new AI system has been developed to automatically find and flag these illegal copies much faster and more efficiently than human teams could, allowing publishers to quickly shut down piracy networks.

Japan is investing $130 billion to promote its anime and video games internationally. A new AI system is intended to support creators and combat piracy happening outside of Japan.

Read More

2025-12-09 13:49