Japan's CODA Says Anime and Manga Piracy Cost Industry 2 Trillion Yen in 2021

Piracy in the anime industry has increased since CODA's 2019 study

Japan's Content Overseas Distribution Association (CODA) has released a report stating that pirating of Japanese entertainment, including manga, anime, music, and videotape games, brings the assiduity between ¥1.9 and ¥2.2 trillion yen (US $14.2 to $16.5 billion) in 2021. The figure represents a huge increase from CODA's former study in 2019 and is grounded on request checks and consumer questionnaires.

The study shows that anime and other videotape content lost ¥906.5 billion to ¥1.4 trillion yen (about US $6.8 to $10.5 billion) to pirating, 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 pirating to people spending further time indoors due to the COVID-19 epidemic and the proliferation of streaming services.

The Authorized Books of Japan (ABJ) trade group also reported that manga pirating brings the industry losses an aggregate of ¥1.19 trillion yen (about US $8.76 billion) during the same period, representing a sharp increase of 4.8 times over the once two times. Sanctioned deals 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 the loss of profit through the number of runner views through various websites (not counting downloads).

According to Nikkei Asia, pirating bring the manga industry losses of roughly ¥800 billion yen (about US $6 billion) in Japan alone from January to October 2021. This number exceeds the maximum of the entire request for authorized publications, which Nikkei Asia estimated at ¥600 billion yen (about US $5.19 billion) yearly.

The Japanese government has been making efforts to combat piracy, such as the revision of the Copyright Act in 2019 and the creation of the Anti-Piracy Promotion Association in 2010. However, piracy remains a persistent problem in the industry, causing significant financial losses for creators and publishers.