Japan using AI to fight Manga piracy

At the forefront of this effort is Authorized Books of Japan. They are a publishers’ association working to protect copyright and fight piracy. Right now, illegal online distribution is costing publishers an estimated 8.5 trillion yen. That translates to a staggering $55 billion U.S. dollars annually. Online piracy is a huge problem for the American comic book industry as well. Yet still nowhere near as bad as it is for manga. Mainly because the major U.S. publishers have finally caught on to day-and-date releases for digital comics. But many manga fans outside of Japan are simply not patient enough to wait for the official translations for many of these series.

Tokyo University of the Arts lecturer Yukari Shiina says, “The speed of manga translation has not kept pace with reader demand.” Will the use of artificial intelligence make a big enough difference? The Agency of Cultural Affairs says it will support initiatives to train manga translators using AI, teaching those translators in various courses that focus on translation techniques and how to leverage AI. At the same time, several private companies are developing new, specialized AI tools specifically for manga translation. They hope this stops the bleeding, and the various creators receive payment for their work.