The fight against anime and manga piracy is at the forefront of the Japanese entertainment industry. While this has become a major source of foreign currency earnings, with overseas sales exceeding 6.13 trillion yen in 2024 (approximately $38 billion), losses incurred due to the piracy of anime and manga rose to 5.7 trillion yen in 2025 from 2 trillion yen in 2022. Now, the Japanese government is stepping in with measures that are bound to become controversial.
According to The Yomiuri Shinbun Japan News, the government led by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is planning a massive round of subsidies for 15 companies to expand the overseas market for Japanese entertainment, chiefly anime and manga, with the aim of tripling overseas sales to 20 trillion yen by 2033. The companies eligible are expected to include big publishers such as Shueisha (One Piece), Kodansha Ltd. (Attack on Titan), and Square Enix Co. (The Apothecary Diaries), but also Bandai Namco Holdings Inc., and streaming company Crunchyroll, LLC, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corp, which is also the largest shareholder of Kadokawa.
According to anonymous sources cited by the report, the subsidy, which could provide a total of 11.5 billion yen, would cover half of the investment costs that the recipient companies need to better promote their works overseas. This includes translating their works into foreign languages faster with the help of generative AI. Other aims include increasing advertisement placement, holding events outside of Japan, and boosting the combined number of subscribers to the recipients’ services from 100 million to 300 million.
Last week, the Japanese parliament held a special session to discuss the manga industry. One of the key takeaways was the need to fight piracy more effectively, and it seems that the government is not afraid of stepping into controversial territory to do so. The dangers that generative AI poses for the creative and entertainment industry are well-known. Professional translators would be the first people negatively affected by this initiative, but there’s no telling where this could stop. Back in April, animation studio WIT faced backlash for its use of generative AI in the opening sequence of Ascendance of a Bookworm. In December of last year, Prime Video had to remove its AI-generated subtitles for Banana Fish.
The Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry is set to announce the companies eligible for the subsidies. In its bid to curb piracy, the Japanese government and the entertainment industry risk radicalizing fans (some of whom already justify illegal practices with the steep cost of subscription services) through the specter of AI, pushing them to rely on piracy regardless of how fast the products get translated into other languages. Surely enough, this initiative would mark a massive shift for the industry; it remains to be seen if it will be for the best.
