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CODA: Anime, Manga Piracy Cost Industry Around 2 Trillion Yen in 2021
posted on by Kim Morrissy
The organization calculated that anime and other video content from Japan lost 906.5 billion to 1.4 trillion yen (about US$6.8 to 10.5 billion) to piracy, while manga and other published media lost 395.2 billion to 831.1 billion yen (about US$3 to 6.2 billion). CODA attributed the rise of piracy to people spending more time indoors due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the proliferation of streaming services.
The Authorized Books of Japan (ABJ) trade group reported that manga piracy cost the industry a total of 1.19 trillion yen (about US$8.76 billion) during the same period. This represented a sharp increase of 4.8 times over the past two years, while official sales only increased by 1.6 times over the same period (or 612 billion yen/US$5.33 billion) according to The Research Institute for Publications). The ABJ calculated loss of revenue through the number of page views through pirate websites (not counting downloads).
According to Nikkei Asia, piracy cost the manga industry approximately 800 billion yen (about US$6 billion) in Japan alone from January-October 2021. Nikkei Asia stated that number exceeds the amount of the entire market for authorized publications, which it estimated at 600 billion yen (about US$5.19 billion) yearly. The Asahi Shimbun reported that, according to the ABJ, the 10 most popular manga piracy websites received approximately 240 million monthly hits from April 17, 2018 to June 2021, after Japanese-language manga piracy site Mangamura became inaccessible. According to the ABJ, the top three websites saw a 14-fold increase in views from January 2020 to April 2021.
CODA is an anti-piracy trade group that includes 32 Japanese companies such as Kodansha, Shueisha, Shogakukan, Aniplex, Kadokawa, Sunrise, Studio Ghibli, Bandai Namco Arts, Pony Canyon, Toei Animation, and more. Since January 2022, companies and organizations from over 13 countries are cooperating to form the International Anti-Piracy Organization (IAPO), which launched in April. CODA is at the center of the new organization. The association is currently working with cybersecurity experts to identify the operators behind pirate sites.
Last Thursday, the association revealed that Brazilian authorities had taken down 36 websites hosting pirated anime. Toei Animation, TOHO, and Bandai Namco Filmworks, all members of the association, filed criminal complaints against four websites. After Brazilian authorities investigated the operators of the four websites and negotiated with other operators of similar sites, they closed 31 sites, while five other sites voluntarily ceased operations. CODA claimed that the 36 sites averaged 83 million views per month between December last year and February.
The association also took credit in March for assisting Chinese authorities in taking down a major website hosting pirated anime for people living in Japan.
Source: Kyodo News via Japan Today
