Manga Culture & Internet Governance-The Fight Against Piracy | IGF 2023 WS #69

Moto HAGIO

Moto Hagio, a renowned manga artist, shares her insights on the qualities and perception of manga in society. She emphasises that the most important features of manga are interesting stories and appealing characters, which greatly contribute to its enjoyment and popularity. However, she acknowledges that manga was once seen as vulgar and looked down upon in society.

During Hagio’s childhood, manga was disapproved of in schools, families, and society at large. Parents often encouraged their children to focus on their studies rather than reading manga. Despite this disapproval, Hagio firmly believes that manga has great educational value. She asserts that manga provides valuable lessons about human emotions and relationships, which are often not taught in traditional educational settings. Hagio specifically mentions that she learned a lot about these aspects through reading manga, particularly the works of Tezuka Osamu, whose manga taught her lessons that were not generally found in society.

In terms of piracy, Hagio strongly opposes it and supports the reading and purchasing of officially published works. She emphasises the importance of creators receiving appropriate remuneration for their work, describing it as saddening and unjust when creators do not receive compensation. Hagio mentions that the revenue she receives from readers of her old works on the internet allows her to earn a living and invest in future works. She appreciates readers who choose to support official versions of her work and actively encourages anti-piracy measures.

Furthermore, Hagio proposes additional incentives for readers who opt for formal channels of manga consumption. She suggests privileges such as providing points or featuring the voices of artists as a token of appreciation. Hagio believes that these incentives can promote and encourage the choice to purchase manga from legitimate sources. This aligns with her stance that creators should be appropriately rewarded for their work.

In conclusion, Moto Hagio’s perspective on manga revolves around its qualities, societal perception, educational value, and the issue of piracy. She believes that manga’s interesting stories and appealing characters are its defining attributes, while acknowledging its historical disapproval in society. Hagio firmly advocates for the educational importance of manga, asserting that it imparts valuable life lessons on emotions and relationships. Additionally, she opposes piracy, supports reading and purchasing officially published works, and proposes incentives to encourage readers to choose legitimate sources. Hagio ultimately encourages readers to make ethical choices and considers the impact of piracy on both readers and artists.

Jun Murai

Manga piracy has become a significant issue in the digital age, largely due to the accessibility and replication capacity of the internet. The ease of generating and distributing exact copies of digital information endangers copyrighted material, causing concerns for industries such as music, movies, and publishing. These industries have faced struggles as their digital content is easily replicated and shared without permission.

Various protection mechanisms and subscription technologies have been developed to address this problem. These technologies aim to safeguard intellectual property content by providing encrypted materials and web standard subscriptions. Implementing such measures can help protect industries against piracy and ensure fair compensation for their creative works.

Jun Murai, an expert in the fight against piracy, acknowledges the complexity and challenges involved in dealing with piracy operators and malicious domains. Identifying the identities of piracy operators and dealing with malicious domains are major obstacles in the battle against piracy. Moreover, the involvement of intermediary providers, such as content delivery networks (CDNs), adds another layer of complexity to this issue.

Despite the challenges, Murai appreciates the collaboration among different stakeholders in Japan, including the government, internet community, and industry, in addressing piracy. The Japanese government has raised the issue of piracy to the Government Advisory Board (GAC) under the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). Regular meetings among CEOs of internet service providers and publishing companies in Japan are also held to discuss piracy issues, indicating a proactive approach in combating piracy.

Murai believes that a comprehensive solution to piracy requires cooperation among different domains, such as legal expertise, international law, climate, and internet service providers. Taking a holistic approach to address piracy from multiple angles can lead to more effective solutions. Regular dialogues engaging different stakeholders are necessary to develop strategies and policies that can effectively combat piracy.

Drawing from the success of the music industry in combating piracy, where sharing music online is followed by encouraging live music attendance, the same model could be applied to manga. By sharing digital manga content and then fostering a supportive environment for attending live manga events, the industry can adapt to the digital age while maintaining its value and revenue streams.

Publishing companies are advised to preserve the value of printed manga in digital format and continue collaborating with both established and upcoming artists. By embracing new formats while recognizing the importance of the original art form, manga can thrive in the digital era without losing its essence.

Moreover, streaming services and publishers are releasing more content to cater to the growing demand for manga. Shonen Jump, for example, offers recent chapters for free and provides a subscription service that grants access to all back chapters. This approach not only satisfies consumer demands for more content but also contributes to combating piracy by offering legal alternatives.

While addressing piracy, it is essential to consider potential issues of over-policing that could lead to censorship. Multi-stakeholder discussions regarding internet censorship policies are taking place to ensure a balance between protecting intellectual property rights and preserving freedom of expression. The involvement of the ICANN Government Advisory Board highlights the importance of addressing this issue and finding appropriate solutions.

Manga has gained global recognition and popularity in recent years, with an increasing number of fans outside of Japan. The early 2000s saw a surge in manga’s global popularity, and European fans have accepted and appreciated the cultural aspects of manga. This growing accessibility has contributed to the wider reach and influence of manga worldwide.

Piracy has extended due to expensive and unavailable translation services. The high cost of translation has led some individuals to consume pirated content instead. Efforts are being made to address these issues and make translation services more widely available, aiming to reduce the dependence on pirated copies and ensure that creators receive fair compensation.

Youth engagement plays a crucial role in the fight against piracy. Young individuals actively stand up against piracy and engage in campaigns to discourage the use of illegally copied software. Publishing companies recognize the power of youth in these campaigns and attract young individuals to join their efforts against piracy.

In conclusion, manga piracy poses significant challenges to various industries due to the accessibility and replication capacity of the internet. Protection mechanisms and subscription technologies have been developed to safeguard intellectual property content, and collaboration among stakeholders is crucial in addressing piracy effectively. The success of the music industry’s model suggests ways in which manga can adapt to the digital age. Preservation of the value of printed manga, cooperation among domains, and the involvement of youth are essential components of a comprehensive solution to piracy.

Andy Nakatani

The global manga market has experienced rapid growth, particularly during the pandemic, as people sought entertainment while staying at home. Manga consumption saw a significant spike in 2019 and 2020, leading to increased popularity and sales. The rise in manga’s popularity can be attributed to the increased availability of anime on broadcast cable TV and the presence of big box bookstores like Borders, which contributed to its mainstream appeal.

To combat piracy, various SimulPub platforms have been introduced. These platforms offer official manga content in both English and Japanese simultaneously, aiming to provide an accessible and alternative option for readers. Publishers such as Viz Manga, Shonen Jump, Manga Plus, K-Manga, BookWalker, and MangaUp have adopted this strategy, allowing them to release content alongside its Japanese counterpart and reducing the prevalence of pirated content.

However, the presence of illegal or pirated content remains a major issue in the manga industry, particularly through scanlation sites. It is estimated that there are approximately 1,100 known piracy sites, resulting in substantial financial damages to the industry. The top 10 piracy sites in Japan alone account for approximately 507 billion Japanese yen in damages. This piracy not only affects the revenue of artists and publishers but also devalues the perception of the art and the work of the artists themselves.

Piracy creates a sense of entitlement among readers who come to expect free access to manga even before its official release. The popularity of piracy sites is staggering, with visits to the top 10 piracy sites in original Japanese totaling more than 150 million per month. The English manga piracy sites have an even larger audience, with around 200 million visits per month. This trend highlights the need to address the issue of piracy and educate readers on the value of supporting official releases.

Efforts are being made to increase the accessibility and affordability of manga through streaming services and lower subscription prices. Streaming services focus on attracting readers through a large funnel, increasing the exposure of manga, and then guiding them towards making a purchase. Additionally, Shonen Jump, a popular manga publisher, releases chapters on its service the same day they come out in Japan, allowing fans to stay up to date with the latest content. The push for easier access to more content at affordable prices includes offering a low subscription price of $2.99 per month for access to all the back chapters.

Andy Nakatani, an influential figure in the manga industry, looks forward to an upcoming exhibit in San Francisco. His positive perception is fueled by the visible efforts and cooperation taking place across multiple industries. However, Nakatani expresses a lack of enthusiasm for public speaking, which suggests that he may prefer to focus on other aspects of his work.

The strength of the print industry, particularly in the United States, is valued and acknowledged. The United States is known for its strong print industry, which adds to the overall growth and success of the manga market.

In conclusion, the global manga market has experienced significant growth, driven by increased consumption during the pandemic. SimulPub platforms have proven effective in combating piracy by offering official content in English and Japanese simultaneously. However, piracy remains a significant concern, devaluing the perception of manga and the work of artists. Efforts are being made to increase accessibility and affordability through streaming services and attractive subscription prices. The upcoming exhibit in San Francisco and the visible work and cooperation within the industry are promising signs for future development.

Nicole Rousmaniere

A recent manga exhibition held at the British Museum in London was a tremendous success. The event received widespread acclaim and attracted large crowds, with the exhibition selling out completely. Notably, it drew the youngest audience the museum has ever seen, highlighting the broad appeal of manga beyond traditional demographics.

The exhibition was praised for its ability to forge connections and transcend boundaries. Visitors emotionally connected with the content, finding resonance and identification within the storylines and characters depicted in manga. Additionally, the exhibition had a diverse audience in terms of ethnicity, further demonstrating manga’s power to bring people together and promote cultural diversity.

Despite the celebration of manga’s cultural impact, concerns were raised about the threat of piracy to the industry. Piracy not only jeopardizes the livelihoods of manga artists, editors, and publishers, but also poses a risk to the industry as a whole. Efforts are being made to protect the rights of manga creators and safeguard their work from piracy, emphasizing the need to combat this issue.

Manga is considered a valuable cultural treasure of Japan, akin to traditional art forms like Ukiyo-e and culinary delights like sushi. Preserving and cherishing this art form for future generations is deemed crucial. Discussions surround the preservation of physical copies of manga and the concerns that relying solely on digital access could potentially hinder its accessibility and readability in the future.

An important aspect highlighted is the significance of maintaining paper copies of manga. Prominent figures within the industry, such as Murai-sensei, have emphasized the importance of continuing the production of paper copies. This aligns with the goals of responsible consumption and production, contributing to sustainable practices in the industry.

In conclusion, the manga exhibition at the British Museum was a resounding success, showcasing both the popularity and cultural significance of manga. However, it also brought attention to issues such as piracy and the importance of protecting artists’ rights. Efforts are being made to combat piracy and preserve physical copies of manga for future generations. The overall sentiment towards manga and its cultural impact remains positive, and discussions on supporting and safeguarding the industry continue.

Moderator

The panel discussion focused on the significant rise in online piracy and its negative impact on the manga industry. Over 1,100 piracy sites dedicated to manga have led to an estimated $3.6 billion USD in yearly damages. The top Japanese sites alone have 150 million monthly hits, while English-language piracy sites have around 200 million visits. Efforts to combat piracy have had some success, but face challenges such as domain hopping. International cooperation is crucial to address the issue. Manga artists’ livelihoods are being affected, and manga’s global popularity is increasing. Manga provides valuable lessons not taught in schools, but it also faces negative perception. Online piracy sites provide easy access to high-quality content, devaluing the work of artists. Strategies to combat piracy include controlling internet providers and educating consumers. Technology support and collaboration with multiple industries are important. Publishers should differentiate digitized print manga from digital manga. Protecting freedom of speech is a balancing act, and promoting accessible manga globally fosters cultural exchange. A reward system for legal readers, proposed by Moto Hagio, would discourage piracy and support artists. The panel discussion provides valuable insights and recommendations for combating manga piracy and ensuring the industry’s sustainability and growth.

Audience

The discussion centred around the issue of manga piracy and its impact on the industry. One of the main concerns raised was the lack of access to manga in the West and the significant delay in its release, which leads fans to resort to piracy. Victoria Bertola highlighted this problem and suggested that technology should be used to expedite the distribution and availability of native Japanese manga globally and at competitive prices.

Criticism was directed towards the industry’s approach to piracy, with an appeal to recognise fans as potential future buyers rather than pirates. It was argued that teenagers who can’t afford to buy manga may turn to pirated content, but they could become paying customers in the future. Instead of being too harsh on fans, the industry should make their content more accessible and affordable.

The discussion also delved into the underlying reasons why people resort to pirated websites. It was suggested that the use of these websites indicates a high demand for content that is not adequately met. An audience member hinted at the need to learn from other experiences and improve in this area to meet the audience’s demands.

Transparency in earnings distribution within the Japanese industry and the impact of piracy on artists’ earnings were also raised as concerns. There is a perception that the majority of profits go to publishers rather than the artists, which raises questions about the impact of piracy on the artists’ livelihoods.

The discussion also touched on the potential impact of piracy on freedom of information and the risk of censorship. It was argued that pursuing and punishing end users who share content goes against freedom of information. Some fears were expressed over how anti-piracy actions could lead to censorship, including political and economic censorship. A representative from the Pirate Party International and Russian Pirate Party emphasised this point, highlighting that it could even involve pursuing individuals wearing potentially counterfeited items.

Affordability and accessibility were identified as key issues. Affordability was cited as a driving factor for piracy, with a thousand-dollar camera costing five months’ minimum wage in some countries. Limited translation of manga into various languages also leads people to rely on volunteers who translate and publish manga online for free. It was argued that piracy is a symptom of inequality rather than solely a problem of greed, and the root causes of affordability and accessibility need to be addressed.

The role of exhibitions in raising awareness about manga piracy was highlighted. The suggestion was made to include awareness actions about manga piracy in exhibitions as a tool for educating attendees about copyright infringement. This could help combat piracy by providing information and raising awareness.

The importance of maintaining copyright laws and fair use was emphasised during the discussion. It was asserted that knowledge of intellectual property and copyright is crucial for protecting creators, and fair use ensures that copyright owners receive their royalties.

Legal online distribution was advocated as a solution to piracy. It was suggested that such platforms would not only curb piracy but also support upcoming artists. One representative shared her personal experience of how manga influenced her art and explained the need for legal online distribution in Latin America due to rampant piracy and the lack of legal platforms.

Lastly, involving youths in the fight against piracy was seen as crucial. It was observed that most pirates are from the younger generation, and they have a good understanding of the importance of manga and the threats posed by piracy. The use of new technologies among youths makes them well-equipped to fight piracy effectively.

In conclusion, the discussion explored various arguments and perspectives on manga piracy. The lack of access, delayed releases, affordability issues, and inequality were identified as major driving factors behind piracy. The industry was urged to address these issues by utilising technology for improved distribution, making content more affordable and accessible, and involving youths in the fight against piracy. Maintaining copyright laws and fair use was seen as crucial for protecting creators. Overall, it was emphasised that addressing the complex issue of piracy requires a comprehensive approach that recognises the underlying causes and works towards resolving them.

Moderator:
Shall we start on time? Is it okay for us to get started on time? Okay, so thank you for joining us on this sunny day for the session, Manga Culture and Internet Governance, The Fight Against Piracy. This is Kensaku Fukui, and this session was planned by the Japan Publishers Manga Anti-Piracy Conference, or JPMAC, which was established by five major manga publishing companies and lawyers, and which has manga piracy. Japanese manga is popular all around the world. It continues to expand with many anime adaptations, game adaptations, character goods, and fun events. Sales have also increased significantly. Many saimaru publication apps are making new releases available to the public around the world in English and many other languages. The problem we are facing is the online piracy business, which has rapidly become a huge problem for creative industries. So far, there are 1,100 non-active piracy sites for manga only. The top 10 Japanese sites attract 150 million hits per month. This is the number of visits. The Three major English language piracy sites attract even larger visits of some 200 million. It is estimated that free reading via the internet was 3.6 billion US dollars per year. They are offered by anonymous operators through a combination of various services on the internet. Often, the countries where the hosting servers are located differ from the countries where the operators exist. And both tend to be concentrated in countries where the, for political and other reasons. And they are, in addition, they select and use registrars, CDNs, advertising companies, or other services that can be easily used anonymously and basically do when notices are given. For five years, we have been working hard to combat manga piracy and have driven several huge sites to close through legal proceedings overseas and cooperation with Japanese internet and advertising industries. As a result, the number of visits to the Japanese language sites dropped from four million per month in the first period. However, New problems have arisen when trying to take countermeasures, such as repeated domain hopping, where the target site to change domains in a short period of time. And the number of visits does not decrease any further, but unfortunately, rather, the number of sites tend to increase and diversify. But the problem of piracy sites that impacts manga artists is still not fully recognized internationally. It is impossible to curb the piracy without cooperation and support from the rest of the world. Today’s diverse speakers include a legendary manga artist, and a researcher known as the father of the Japanese internet, a curator who opened a major manga exhibition at the British Museum and broke its record for youth attendance, and an editor who has worked in the manga business for more than 20 years in the United States. For the healthy and sustainable development of creative activities and the internet, we would like to gather the wisdom of everyone in the audience and discuss it together. So, could you show the… Yes. By the way, this is today’s speaker, Hagio-san’s representative. repetitive work, anyway. Okay. So the, let me. Let’s start. First, we’d like to talk about manga’s expansion throughout the world in various forms. Among the popular manga, One Piece have had over 510 million copies in circulation so far, and it’s on the Guinness World Record. But manga is not accepted only by publication, but through various ways, such as anime, games, and fan events. Nicole-san, could you share your experience about the creation and acceptance of manga overseas, including recent major exhibition at British Museum?

Nicole Rousmaniere:
I’d be delighted to. And I’m very excited to be here today to talk to you about this, because it’s an incredibly important subject. But first, I will tell you about the British Museum exhibition. Komenasai. As you can see, this is the British Museum, and we have what they call Toblerones, the Ashiripa from Golden Kamuy, introducing manga at the British Museum from the very beginning, when you enter the museum. This was in 2019. I’ve been reading manga since I was young, and I’m passionate about manga. I was a curator at the British Museum for over 15 years. My specialty is actually kouge, and three-dimensional objects, but I love manga. And in 2017, I got my first salary, and I put out a manga corner. So we always had. display, but the British Museum has been collecting manga, since the 1920s, with Kitazawa Rakuten, and those, and those types of objects, but they didn’t display them, they were considered ephemera. What I did at the British Museum was occasionally display manga, for example in the Asahi Shimbun display area, and in 2015, I displayed St. Oni-san, Shiba Tetsuya’s work, and then Hoshino Yukinobu and, and Nakamura Hikaru. It sounds like an odd combination, but it was fun, it was interesting and showing different types of manga production. What happened though, was 100,000 people came and looked at it. And this took the British Museum by surprise. They assumed that people weren’t really interested in manga, but they had to pay attention then. So in about a year or two later, they asked me, well, would you think about making a large exhibition? And I said, of course. And so I wrote up a proposal, and they put it to marketing research. I think that they believed it wouldn’t work. I think that they really were setting me up to fail, as they say in English, but they put five exhibitions out, Samuel Beckett’s Roman sculpture, a number of different exhibitions, and manga came in as number one. They were actually thinking they weren’t going to do it, but then they realized they had to do it. So I got the manga exhibition, I was delighted. And it turns out that they gave me the most beautiful space. And this space is right here, it’s called the Sainsbury Exhibition Galleries. On the ground floor, it’s huge. And it’s right next to where the Rosetta Stone is displayed. This caused a lot of issues within the museum. People felt, should Japan be displayed there? Should manga be displayed there? And there was a lot of debate. But happily, it went forward huge resounding success. I want to explain just a little bit about some of the results for that. But we’re giving you a sneak preview of the inside of what it looked like the top two slides are just without people in it. And then the bottom side you can see Captain Tsubasa, and with people in it, it was incredibly crowded. The exhibition was sold out. It turns out, afterwards, when they did the analysis, that it was the best selling exhibition. And most importantly, it had the youngest audience that the British Museum has ever had. In addition to that, what was impressive is that it has so in in Britain, they say BAME, B-A-M-E, but it means, you know, audiences that are not white came. And beyond that, it was also interesting, there were a number of certain types of groups, for example, people with autism, were certain types of groups that self identified that really loved the manga exhibition. So for the British Museum, this was a huge surprising result. So basically, this summarizes the results of the manga exhibition. One thing I really want to point out is that half the visitors had never paid for an exhibition at the British Museum before. So this broke new ground all around. What the survey at the end found out, though, was that most people identified with emotional outcomes, not intellectual outcomes, but emotional outcomes. This means they identified with the material. The average dwell time was one hour and 33 minutes, which is very long for the British Museum paid exhibition. This is the exhibition layout and, and our different zones. But what I just really want to focus on here is that we created a counterclockwise exhibition, because in manga, you really have to read it from right to left. And this is fundamentally different what in Britain, how you read from left to right, and even walking counterclockwise was really problematic for a lot of the designers and for the people in the British Museum, but we did it and I feel we, it shows that you can shift people’s minds and hearts and it was a huge success. It won the good design prize for 2020. These are just a few of the things that we put in it and I don’t have very much time but I want to just explain a couple more things. We of course had the father of modern manga Tezuka Osamu sensei’s work, but a lot of interest was Princess Knight. The idea of kind of gender fluidity or different types of genders and different types of representations. This was a big surprise for many of our audience. We also had really important artists like Chiba Tetsuya sensei come and, and he didn’t actually physically come but he drew a rugby for the World Cup. Rugby World Cup he drew a rugby picture for us and represented us and this really made a big difference although interesting enough his work isn’t translated, but still it seemed to reach people, but I have to say that the person who made the most difference to me was Hagiomoto sensei. She’s right with us, and she was there for us throughout the exhibition but she came with her editor who is extraordinary, Furukawa-san, and they gave many talks, they showed us how editors and manga artists work together. And this is a big deal and something I want to just mention is what I learned from this exhibition is that manga isn’t just a manga artist drawing and then it’s published. With it’s the, it’s I’d say maybe 50% I’m not quite sure but it’s once the manga artist draws the conversations with the editors, the name of the storyboards, the work that the publishing house does, finally the end product so it’s this combination, and with Hagiomoto sensei there, I felt that we could do it, and we did. I want to give one example of Shizuka Shinichi. Blue Giant Supreme. Maybe some of you know this, but this is with his editor Katsuki Dai. And during one of their conversations, they showed how they work with name, the storyboards and what’s in and what’s out. But I want to draw your attention to the drawing itself. So this is, we have Dai, he’s blowing on his saxophone and you feel this music shower coming in. It’s this immersive quality. It’s an emotive that is so incredibly important. And we’re coming to the end. I just wanted to say a couple more points. In the middle of the exhibition, we decided to put a manga library and the manga bookstore in a way. And the reason we did this was that one manga artist told me, manga is not what you put on the walls. It’s what you put in your hands. And that really struck me. And so we put this library and at first, the British Museum said, we’re not a library, please don’t put a bookshelf in the middle of the exhibition. But it was the most popular part of the exhibition. To have the books out, people could hold them. They said they would steal them. Not one volume was stolen. People would sit and read, even if it’s in Japanese and they knew. Holding manga in your hands makes a huge difference. The paper quality was brilliant, but this was wonderful and gave us free downloads. So we had free downloads available. We had 50 artists, 70 titles. It was a very large exhibition. But in the end, just to summarize, manga material is incredible. You can have Buddha and Jesus living together in a gap year in Tachikawa drawing manga as a subject. You can have you can have incredible subjects right here. One was really popular from paper manga, One Punch Man. This was incredibly popular at the museum. But I’d really like to mention the power of manga and how it, it’s not just in the paper, how it comes out into your life. So For example, we had this fabulous thanks to Kodansha attack on Titan huge blow up head, it became a major selfie moment for us, but people really identified and it was almost like they had found their tribe, they had found their manga. Manga’s power to me is because it can cross boundaries, it can cause. And these are the many lessons I learned from it, but what I also learned is that for the future of manga we need to protect it, we need to protect the artists, we need to protect their ability to work with the publishers and piracy is something that endangers the thriving of the industry. And so this panel is very important.

Moderator:
Thank you very much for your impressive insights. And, by the way, you can keep that yes. By the way, this is a cosplayers from all over the world so it’s interactive. And, Andy-san, could you share your perspective on the rapid growth of the global manga market from the business side.

Andy Nakatani:
Of course, of course, to do that. I’m Andy Nakatani, I’m the Senior Director of Online Manga at Viz Media. Prior to that I was editor in chief of the English language version of Shonen Jump, which in 2012 we released in a digital format and came out simultaneously. As Japan released chapters we would release them on the same day. So if we can see the chart. Is the slide visible with the chart. I will assume it is. So this chart represents, is it there? Yeah, okay, so this chart represents manga sales, graphic novel sales in the U.S. in units and represents manga and the blue is graphic novels that are not manga. So the total of the two is a total graphic novel sales. We only have data from 2007 on this chart. So I just wanted to say a couple of things about before. Manga was a very niche market in the U.S. until about 2006, when it reached quite a peak. And the main reason that it became popular was because of the popularity of anime on broadcast cable TV. And because of the prevalence of big box bookstores like Borders. Following that around 2011, there was a little bit of a decline, various market factors, also Borders started shutting down stores and eventually declared bankruptcy in, I think it was 2011. But moving on from there, there was steady growth mainly because in the United States. And then you see this huge spike that’s happening around 2019, 2020. And that clearly that was because the pandemic happened and people needed entertainment and distraction and they were staying at home. So they consumed a lot of manga. Now, I wanna emphasize that this is for print sales. And let’s see, slide, and before I talk about the slide with the various SimulPub platforms that we have, I do want to talk a little bit about piracy. So illegal content of manga, pirated content, scanlation sites, and that’s kind of like a portmanteau of scan and translation. And so a common term is scanlation to refer to the pirated sites. They release a vast amount of content. It’s free, and it comes out really fast. And to sort of come up with a strategy to combat that, there are various official online SimulPub manga platforms that are now available in English. Official publishers such as Biz Manga, Shonen Jump, Manga Plus, K-Manga, BookWalker, MangaUp, most of these are from Japanese publishers who have released content in English. There are various business models for these, various combinations of free content, subscription models, microtransactions, points. But the main thing here is that the content is released simultaneous with chapters that come out in Japanese. And so the translated content comes out on the same day. And for example, my company puts out Biz Manga and Shonen Jump, and we we put out the first three chapters for free and the latest three chapters for free. And to access the chapters in between, you subscribe for a low fee. And so those are just kind of the various models that are out there for simultaneous content.

Moderator:
Okay, Andy, thank you very much for your insights. And yes, so Hagio-san, you are a living legend of Japanese manga. And could you share your personal view on the experience as for manga creation and acceptance?

Moto HAGIO:
Hi. Yes, so this is Hagio speaking. Thank you very much for coming this afternoon. So, well, I have been reading manga since I was in primary school. And once I really got into this, as due to Emizo Rico, so they really had very good and interesting works. And I think the best thing about manga is to have interesting stories and very appealing characters. I think those are the two major points. When I was in primary school, manga was still something that was regarded as something rather vulgar in the schools and in the family and in the overall society. That is how people looked at manga. So when we were reading manga, we were scolded. But after I read Tezuka Osamu’s works, I thought that I can learn things that we cannot learn from the general society, but it was full of a lot of lessons. So first parents would tell us to study more and to do things more properly. So that is how people looked at manga. days. But in the manga world, there were a lot of emotions, a lot of stories, and a lot of how human beings can trust each other, and a lot of things that we can learn. So through manga, I was able to learn a lot of things that were people aside from what we learn at school. And through that, I really got into the manga world, and I kept on diving inside. And at the end of the day, I wanted to become part of that world, and that is how I became a manga artist. So that is something that I would like to continue pursuing in the manga world. Thank you very much.

Moderator:
Thank you very much. So, anybody has any comments on so far?

Nicole Rousmaniere:
What Hagio-san said was so incredibly important. It’s how manga brings you into another way of feeling. It’s not just reading. It’s the immersive quality of manga that’s part of its power. Can you explain that?

Moderator:
Thank you very much. I totally agree. Okay, so let’s move on to the next part, the impact of piracy. And from now on, you can keep the PowerPoint on every time. And it’s a bit busy, okay? There are approximately 1,100 known piracy sites, and among them, approximately 240 sites are piracy sites in original Japanese. And 400 sites are piracy sites with English translation, and approximately 460 sites are piracy sites translated into various non-English. other languages. And on this slide, you can see the typical Japanese manga piracy site. As you see on the left hand, you can find almost all popular mangas. And you can just click on any images, then the list of chapters appear on the right hand. And by clicking on a chapter, you can immediately scroll to read in quite high quality. And a visit to top 10 piracy sites in original Japanese for August 2023 is, as I said, more than 150 million visits per month. And seven of them are believed to have operators residing in Vietnam. This draws information or other, yeah, informations. And damages caused by the top 10 piracy sites in Japanese is estimated to be approximately 507 billion Japanese yen. It’s an estimate by number of site visits multiplied by regular retail price. So there should be some argument about this calculation, but anyway, it’s huge. This is a typical English manga piracy site, but as you see, it’s pretty much similar to Japanese ones, except for translated in English. And visits to the top three English manga piracy sites are even bigger than Japanese ones. Here are some 200 million visits per month. Andy-san, could you share your view on such piracy impact on manga artists and the industry?

Andy Nakatani:
Sure. So first of all, obviously there’s the loss of potential revenue of the manga artists. Maybe even more than that, I feel that piracy devalues the perception of what manga is and devalues all that the manga artists put into their work. It kind of fosters a sense of entitlement for people who read the pirated content, where they come to expect that they’re gonna read the content for free and they expect to be able to access it as soon as possible. And at times that’s even before the official release of the Japanese content.

Moderator:
Thank you very much. Hagio-san. All right. About these piracy activity, piracy sites, if you have any vision or.

Moto HAGIO:
Well, so as a creator of manga, if it is a pirated site, the revenue does not come to the manga creator. So in the 2000s. Many publishers digitalized manga and started to make this available on the internet. And so a lot of my works have been exposed onto the internet. And what I thought at that time was, this is a very easy and simple thing, and it’s on the internet. So I thought, I was feared that many people will be reading manga for free. But well, a publisher is a business entity, so they are able to count the number of people reading, so they were able to get revenues. And many readers of our old works were also paying, and we were able to receive the revenues, and we were able to make a living and to invest for future works. So for us creators, so if we do not get remuneration for what we did, it is something that is very sad, and it should not happen. So we have to do everything possible to first let the users know that they should not be reading pirated works, but they should be reading the official or paid works. So I use Kindle and I buy things through e-commerce online, but when you can either get one for free or get one for paid, I always tend to choose that for the paid selection, because if I’m extremely poor, I might be making a different decision, but that is what I tend to do. So I really appreciate that people should be reading the official versions going on.

Moderator:
Thank you. You are another living legend of the Internet world, and is this the only problem for manga piracy, or do you think it has broader relation to Internet at all? large, or any other insights or views?

Jun Murai:
Yeah, okay, yeah, thank you very much. This is Jim Wright, by the way. I’m known as the biggest fan of a manga in this country. And so, like Hagio-sensei, I’ve been kind of grown up with reading a lot of, lot of, lot of mangas, and probably you don’t believe that how I like, how I love the manga for my life. Hagio-sensei’s question, the pirates thing is very much kind of a digitally, internet has been providing the open space for exchanging the idea and many of the things. And so, the, well, the, I remember, this is IGF forum, Internet Governance Forum, by the way. And then, so I kind of, when the very beginning of the internet space, then the first things we encountered are the internet community. That time in the, some of the people on the internet on the world intellectual property came to the internet space, IETF people. And then I started to discuss how the global intellectual property is gonna be addressed on the cyberspace, right, on the internet space. That was a very much first experience of mine. I was a representative from IETF, and then I know there are several representative from a world intellectual property organization. And we started to talk about what the intellectual property to be addressed on the internet. So, because of digital information can be copied and it’s exactly the same copy, we can generate, and then the multiple copies for everyone. So, it’s very easy. And then instantly. So, that the impact of the, you know, kind of any copyrighted material to be in danger in a sense, right, for the thing. So, not only the music industry woke up on that scene, and then the movie industry as well. And so, various industries started to struggle with that kind of thing and the free copy of the digitized, well, the intellectual properties, copyrighted material or intellectual, the material with the copyright. So, we have a long history to work on that. And then, especially with sources, I mean, people who got, you know, kind of a rights to the manga artists, of course, right, and the music artists, and then in a movie, intellectual property, copyrighted movie and etc. So, at the same time, then the industries of those areas, including the publishing area, they started to think about extend their business over the internet in various ways. And so, the encrypted materials and the other things, I mean, other technology to support the, you know, the subscription technology on the web standard, you know, those technologies has been provided to protect the sources of our intellectual property contents. So basically the important thing is the working together type of a thing started that way. So kind of a crimes related thing, like a pilot is a crime, right? And then also the technology support to protect that against the crime for the kind of owner of the intellectual property. So that has been worked sometimes good and sometimes damaging the existing industries in a sense. But then from a broader view of a history, then I know it’s a very much a working and it’s very important. That’s also the spirit of IGF, Multi-Stakeholder as well.

Moderator:
Thank you very much for your insight. And in order to work together we should, we need to know how piracy sites work. And so let’s move on to the next part, that part. And let’s see how such, I’m sorry. Let’s see how such piracy site work. This is only a rough picture of how they work. Piracy site operators usually contract with hosting. server at center. In low cost, data logs are relatively tolerant, and operators contract with relay servers too, which is called contents delivery networks, or CDN, so that they can amplify their ability to accept users at low cost and at larger scale. Their income typically come from advertisement, which is on the right hand. The piracy operators select and combine registrars, hosting servers, CDNs, advertising companies, or other. And as you will see on the next slide, some essential services these illegal sites use, network registrars, or CDN services, as you see, concentrated on one or a few companies that can be easily used anonymously and basically do not end when notices are given. And there is another problem called domain hopping, which is a repeated move with redirected domains during a short period of time. For example, this is a real example, and a piracy site called A has changed its redirection ten times to five different domains within three and a half months only. And when the domain is rapidly changed, the effort for countermeasures must start over again. So, let’s see each such countermeasure and walls confronted a bit more closely. Let’s see. Okay. And the first step is sending direct removal notices to the sites. One publisher, for example, hires an anti-piracy company to make approximately 250,000 removal notices request monthly. Then next, passing legal procedure. Many of such removal notices are ignored or even if deleted, posted again. So, next we will pursue legal procedures. Since May 2020, we pursue legal procedures against approximately 50 piracy sites in the U.S. only. And identify the names and other information related to more than 10 personnel of interest. But it’s difficult and time-consuming to uncover the identities and servers often relocated before uncovered. Once we discover the identities, then the request for cooperation to foreign governments. But some countries often respond too late and too little. For example, since October 2020, we offer the identity information and ask to make an investigation to certain country, actually foreign government, through diplomatic channels and even regular meetings with the police department in charge. But so far, only one administrative penalty is charged in that region. Or requesting certain registrars, registries, and even ICANN to deal with malicious domain or domain problems. In this regard, many communiqués and public comments have been made at ICANN. Also, we sent direct requests to registrars, but no meaningful action has been taken by subject registrars so far. Or asking certain CDN services to delete illegal files and stop providing their services to obvious piracy sites. It’s simply rejected. Our lawsuit is ongoing. Or another major things we are doing is cooperating with internet and telecommunication industries, making efforts to raise awareness. Actually, the situation is improving in Japan, but international awareness has not significantly improved. in this regard, or removing advertisement to cut their source of income. In Japan, advertisers and the agency organizations and rights holders cooperated to establish a framework for not placing adverts on piracy sites. So the situation improved to some extent. But again, outside advertisers, for example, non-members of any industry, often do not cooperate. So there are still many, mainly adult-oriented adults on these piracy sites. Finally, removing the search results of actual names and the domains of the piracy sites and reducing their spread through SNS. Since 2021, we have removed 28 malicious massive piracy sites and the courts. So this is our current situation. Murai-san, do you have any insight or comment on these efforts or even ideas?

Jun Murai:
Yeah, actually, yeah, the process has been done in a very, I mean, of course, I’m involved, and you are involved, and we’ve been working on those approaches. One of the approaches, oh, by the way, maybe I should explain that in Japan, we’ve been working together for this issue for a long time. And with the industry and the internet community, in that internet industry, actually, and also with the, if needed, then, you know, we are working and asking the government to move. So when the, if, you know, effective, sometimes, and sometimes not effective, I mean, the quickly since they use the word rejected, but then, you know, some of the industry in between the passing the data and the caching the data, like a CDN, it’s very difficult to identify that by their decision that this is good or bad, but then, you know, from the crime side end to end, and then the pirates is a crime, and so crime hunting type of a mechanism could work. And so I think, you know, the Japan having, you know, utilizing all those possible ways in the past to manga, right, and the sometimes effective in terms of, you know, the international, like a, you know, the police to police relationship with certain countries, and talking about the ICANN, when we started the ICANN process, then the government agency is going to be one of the stakeholders called the Government Advisory Board. And then in Japan, a government raised this issue to the GAC, Government Advisory Board, and then being listened to by the many government representatives in that group. We also… issue remain that if, I mean question, can ICANN impact the use of a domain name for the unwanted purposes? And it’s a very difficult for ICANN to, I mean, because domain name is a huge hierarchy things and the ICANN just dealing with a top level domain and therefore the entire internet infrastructure then I can, there is a limited things that ICANN itself can do. So that is the issue number two thing, right? ICANN worked very effectively in terms of sharing the issues with other government on this issue. And they properly discussed and I’d like to thank Japanese government to work, has been working that way. And then also the ICANN discussed on this, but then there is a limited thing that the ICANN do. ICANN, ICANN can do, I’m sorry, not ICANN, ICANN. And one more thing, again, the piracy impact need to be working with a very much different part, I mean, working together. So we need a legal expertise and we need the international legal expertise. We need the climate thing and then also the internet service provider. So that’s a reason why in Japan, in order to deal with this issue, then we have various places to put this thing. From the, one of the example is that we are having every three months then. And specifically for this subject, the CEO of an internet service provider and the CEO of a publishing company having a breakfast together to discuss about that periodically to be reported by people like what is the current status of this issue. So I think we are on the right process to work.

Moderator:
Thank you very much. So Nicole-san and Andy-san and Hagio-san, I’d like to ask your thoughts on our feelings for such efforts against piracy sites and the future of manga at large. So first, Andy-san, could you start? Now, I’m sorry that Nicole-san.

Nicole Rousmaniere:
Thank you very much. I feel that manga is one of the most important or one of the really precious treasures of Japan. It’s becoming worldwide, but it’s really something very, very special, and that needs to be protected. I mean, in a way, you could say it’s like any art form, Ukiyo-e, that wasn’t protected or even sushi that wasn’t protected, and then you can see what’s happened to it in the West now. But if you have manga now can still be protected, and I think it should become registered in some sort of way. But manga artists, editors, and publishers, they’re creating content for us to enjoy. You can see this with Hagiomoto-sensei and our editors, it’s really, really time-consuming. And if we’re not going to pay for that content, in a way, it’s like stealing their work. It’s pretty, it’s just something that we need. We need to stop doing. And I think that we need to stop doing it, there’s ways of stopping all these internet providers, but it’s in a way like drug use, you have to stop with the users have to stop using pirate sites and need to work towards that. By 2025. I’m going to be curating a new manga exhibition in San Francisco, the Sanford at the museum, and I’m hoping you’ll all support me in that. And what I’m hoping by 2025 is we’ll see a shift in in in manga piracy, and we’ll start to see that artists are getting being paid for properly for their work. I’m going to also invite you all to come and see and hopefully there’ll be a good solution.

Moderator:
I know. Thank you very much for your enthusiastic opinions. Yeah, we need to be to 2024 25 in San Francisco. Okay. So, yeah, I believe everybody is. And Anderson. Could you share your views.

Andy Nakatani:
Yes, of course. Looking forward to that exhibit in San Francisco, because, you know, being based in San Francisco. So, has really kind of plagued us for, for, for so long. And I’m never enthusiastic about public speaking, but being part of this panel was was actually a great experience because just interacting with with all the panelists is so encouraging to me that there’s a lot of work being done. such great efforts happening. And I think as others have said, it’s not just the people here, but also it’d be great if we could continue to get cooperation from the multiple industries involved in this. So it’s very encouraging to me.

Moderator:
Thank you very much. As a long time from the Andes, long experience in the publishing industry, the last word is quite impressive for me too. And Hagio-san, could you share your thoughts?

Moto HAGIO:
Well, it’s a small proposal I would like to make. In the case there is a piracy, and if there is the formal one, and we are expecting that we will be able to, maybe some kind of a privilege or the special treatment should be provided. For example, the points should be provided. Or the voices of the artists should be added to express, to appreciate and thank you. Some kind of a special gift or the special price should be given to the readers, the formal readers. So if the readers read the books, be it the piracy or the formal one, you might think it’s better to receive the cheaper one. It’s the same, but if you pay. If you pay as a user, there may be the pain on the part of the piracy readers, but there will be the pain if the royalty is not provided to the artist. So please think about it. Please use the formal routes and channel to make the selection. So it’s a matter of your way of life. Make the decision in your life. Reading the manga, there is always justice from the world of manga. There is justice. So if you are impressed by reading the manga, I hope you will be able to pay for that impression and impact.

Moderator:
Thank you very much for your valuable opinion. And the incentive to the readers of the official version would be impressive, and we should think about that. Do you have any comments on the points raised? Murai-sensei, how about you?

Jun Murai:
Well, yeah. Well, Hagio-sensei’s message is very strong, and so I’m very much moved. And being a big fan of the manga, not the internet expert or anything, so I’ve been thinking about this one. I was thinking about the music industry was also damaged by the internet sharing of music. So, by the way, this is a personal. a story, I’m sorry, but my mother is a musicologist, and so she always told me when I was a kid that the music is a live music, and that the recorded music is a better outreach to the other people. So the important thing is the live music, so we’re going to the live music. So if this story is applying to the manga, then I know, so all the sharing of the music, and then if you like music, and then you go to the live music concert, or whatever. So that model is becoming pretty much successful for the music industry these days, right? And then pretty much suffered by the internet, and then coming back to the very active concert and the theater type of thing. So I’ve been wondering how the manga is going to be. And the manga is, if you like manga, if you understand manga, manga is a combination of the author, artist, and then editor, and they’re working together for the paper printing art. There is a lot of new things coming in, with the digital format and the new format thing. But the printed manga is the origin of the art we are talking about this afternoon. Okay, if that is the case, then publishing companies should make a lot of efforts at inviting the people. I mean, digital, digitized, printed manga is different of a digital, digital manga, right? I mean. new format. So manga is basically the art of a printed manga and then the publishing company should, I believe, I’m asking the publishing company to work on the continued work with the legendary manga artist and also the young newcoming artist for the format. This is a quite a format. I think the Japanese has been working and the outside the country also. The kind of value of manga and that they love manga and the lovers of manga around the world. And so that’s what they are working on. So I really respect the publishing companies’ efforts to extend the value of the printed manga to be digitized outreach to the greater community of big fans of manga.

Moderator:
Thank you very much. Preserving the value of what is not easily substituted by digital copies would be something worth considering. So maybe there is a big hint within the Murai-sensei’s points.

Nicole Rousmaniere:
What I think Murai-sensei was saying is really very, very important. Paper copy, we can read it in digital copies, but having the paper copy of manga is incredibly important and I think it was a plea for this to continue. Just looking at it from a museum perspective. perspective. It’s about the archival qualities, this material, digital access changes, how you access digital content 10 years ago is different from how we access it today. So, it what will happen to manga 30 years from now that we are having today. If we don’t have it in paper, it may not survive, just don’t know is incredibly important. So, I think this was a plea for paper, and I would like to add my voice to that.

Moderator:
Thank you very much. Jason, do you have any thoughts or comments?

Andy Nakatani:
Yes, that’s actually pretty much exactly our strategy with our streaming services to kind of create a large funnel and attract readers, increase exposure of the manga, and then kind of guide them to buy to purchase the graphic novels whether that be digital graphic novel or print, and particularly in the United States, the print industry is very strong. So, yeah, that’s it’s exactly what our strategy is. Thank you very much.

Moderator:
So, if there is no further comments, then let’s take next 20 minutes or something for Q&A sessions. Anybody with comments, please stay in front of Michael. Oh, they are already doing that. Thank you very much. Yeah, please try to keep your comments or questions short within say one minute. So that many people can speak. So, that first.

Audience:
We’ll try to be brief it’s not easy I’m Victoria Bertola I’m known as one of the founders of the AGF by the Italian intern speaking as a lifelong manga and anime. Because when I was eight in television, I saw Mirai Shonen Konan by Miyazaki sensei and that changed my life forever. And so I saw what the music industry was, I saw the music industry doing the same meetings 20 years ago, and they failed. So I am afraid that you can have doing the same mistake. The mistake is you have to be careful not to do is not to confound the just straight privacy, like the people that really take like the last issue of One Piece and Kimetsu no Yaiba and put it online for money, with what your fans are doing piracy, because it’s the only way they can get access to manga, at least in the West, and maybe not in Japan. But in Italy, many manga are not available or only available many months later. I’m reading like, Aswan Senki comes up eight months after the Japanese version, and I wait for eight months, but many people don’t want to wait for eight months, why can’t you make it available in eight weeks or days, I think today with the technology could be possible. Or there are like 15 year old kids that have, I mean, one manga costs 1000 yen, 15 year old, maybe you can buy one month, but they want 10 and so they go to Manga Foxconn. But they may be when they will be 20, they will have money and they will buy more manga. So it will be your customers of the future. So don’t be too hard on your fans to go go against the people that really steal the money. But don’t think of your fans and think of ways you can make be nice to them, and give cheaper, available. Thank you. Thank you very much. So, yeah, I’ll take another question and then the answer to that one. So, please. Thanks. So first, just some clarifying question or comment here. We did the presentation about the countermeasure of piracy, but what I didn’t see is you really try to understand why people try to access to pirate website, because at the end, it showed that there is a demand for that content. And I think for Japan, maybe need to learn about other experience because if we talk maybe more than about the cool Japan, but all the artistic content, you have your neighbor in the West that is succeeding. So maybe it is also for here to think how to improve that area. Finally, you talked about artists and their world, reality and so on, but I want some clarification because unfortunately, in Japan, the industry doesn’t have a good reputation in terms of working condition for the artist and all who are involved. So it’s important to clarify how much they get at the end because you create causality between the piracy and loss of revenue, but it seems it’s more for the publisher. So if you can clarify more how artists are earning and how you can improve their condition because at the end, those who are making the mankind that content that people are looking for. Thanks.

Moderator:
Thank you very much. And yeah, sir, please.

Audience:
Yeah, okay. Alexander Savnin, Pirate Party International and Russian Pirate Party. I’m really sad hearing that in this audience governance forums discussed while chasing and punishing end users. You’re talking about users distributing to each other any content that’s against freedom of information, it’s against the possibility to people to access it. After you start going after users who are sharing their own contents, maybe previously, but you will start going after ones who are creating fan fics or in other stories or even parodies for something like this. And then censorship system. which might be used as political censorship also. I’m sad that I have to remind you that there is 21st article of Japanese constitutions which guarantees Japanese citizens freedom of distribution of information. Please try to distribute your information freely without blaming end users because again, so-called anti-piracy actions could really start making censorship, economic censorship, start chasing girls who are wearing boots which might be counterfeiting, something like this. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. So, okay, so please. Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Julia. I am a youth program delegate from Brazil and I am here to make a point about accessibility and also a reconsideration of some points exposed in the panel about regarding piracy. As other software fellows have introduced, piracy is a symptom of inequality rather than a problem of greed. So, the strategies presented were interesting, but they are considering the total accesses of the piracy consumer and as a matter of choosing free or paid. Many are not in the position to choose. I would like to reference Mrs. Hagio example, a very good example and very touching presentation about why we should support the authors. For example, a thousand dollar camera in my country is. worth five months of the minimum wage in our country. So they are definitely not buying $1,000 cameras, although many can buy $1,000 cameras. And then I’ll make another point, that there is much learned talent from Manga, and I’m very fortunate to meet Shigeru’s musical lessons in Nononba. Though, I only had access to it because I know English, and I had a relative living in Europe at the time, where they bought it in Europe, brought to me in English. And my peers don’t know English, so they will never meet this. There is no possibility. We translate roughly 500 types of brands of Manga, as in like Demon Slayer, and so on, One Piece. Roughly only 500 types of the brand, and they issue every year new issues of the same Manga. So we are not expanding the translator market. And then Piracy comes in, facilitating people doing the work for free. We have a very verdant community, Japanese community in Brazil, and they translate it for free, they publish online for free, and we have access to it. So I have a collection of Manga, which I only gathered through my life, and my new opportunities and jobs, that I know that many of us can do. So there is passion in translating the words for us to access. There is relevance and importance in trying to access such great content, and such profound knowledge. But sometimes we have no options, and we resort to it. So my question is, is there a room to consider that piracy might not be accessible? exterminated, but solve in its whole complexity. Which actions are in place considering this problematic? Thank you. So, yes, please. Hello, everyone. My name is Jose Artu. I’m also part of the Brazilian Youth Delegation, and I’d love to learn about this exhibition as well commented by Nicole. And I would like to know if there are future plans to include awareness actions about manga piracy in these exhibitions.

Moderator:
Okay, so we have already five questions, and there are three more. So let’s take this time to respondedit the questions and the comments so far. And so could you please up a bit? So first, there is a difficulty to obtain new episodes. I think this is for Anderson to answer first.

Andy Nakatani:
Yes, if I may. So I think we are making efforts to put out more content. And with those streaming services that was on the second slide that I had, different publishers are releasing more and more content. And I probably should have explained it a little bit more in detail, but for example, Shonen Jump, the Shonen Jump service releases chapters the same day they come out. And we’re doing as many series as we can right now. Currently we’re doing. We’re doing every single series that comes out in the Shonen Jump magazine in Japan. And we release these chapters for free. The three most recent chapters are free, and then you pay a low price, it’s $2.99 a month in American dollars for access to all the back chapters. So, we are trying to address putting out more content, making it easy access at a low price for more people to access. And then the other publishers are also doing the same thing with their streaming services. But we are making efforts.

Jun Murai:
Thank you very much. I care about that gentleman standing there. So, you want to hear from him or it’s too much? Yeah. All right, another round. Then, yeah, I just want to take a kind of a two, two kind of technical, and I… May I? Okay. So, so the first one is that, yeah, thank you very much for the, you know, all the, the questions I think, I think it’s very much, you know, the reasonable question and also the some of the important questions I need to address. The, you know, the over-pilot action is going to be, you know, kind of against the freedom of speech, which is the, you know, leading to a censorship. and the over-censorship maybe. And this is a very important and a serious issue always in a general, in the history of internet to address. So we are one of the area, I mean, the multi-stakeholder type of a discussion. When we started the ICANN, then the ICANN put the kind of government advisory board, but then all the kind of starting the discussion equally. So, which is very much the format to address those issues in a different stakeholders had a different voice and then listening to them. So IGF is one of the place to understand that one. So in that, well, anyway, probably the balance of that kind of business advantages on a certain area of our industry, and then also the over-censor ring situation should be avoided for the kind of open internet environment. So that’s probably a very important discussion and then applying to this area of our discussion, but probably it’s a taken for the older process in Japan for the manga piracy. Another very interesting question from the lady sitting in there was accessibility question. And then it’s a really important that the manga used to be the rate, I mean, comparing with the music industry, movie industry, other industry, then value. was kind of late to start addressing to all over the world. So I remember in the middle of 2000, 2013, then I visited the French manga shop and then all the books in Europe is kind of opened up this way. And then suddenly the manga is turned out to be a Japanese way, which is different from open from the right. I was very much surprised that, kind of those European fans of a manga accepting the basic culture things to address the manga. Story from the very, very, very famous soccer player from Spain that he was talking about. I started, he’s a big, big legend, a player. He said, I started the soccer from the reading of manga, but why the Japanese soccer player is all lefty? So that was a printed in a reversal. But anyway, so that power was recognized quite recently. Therefore, a lot of things, technical, the accessibility of the manga, I believe. The manga is now the language layer and then the other drawing layer is separated in many of the manga artists are utilizing the digital art tools. And then so that the placement and then the multi-language approach would be easier for the thing. And then the one of the reason why the pilot’s gonna be, kind of very much extending for the, kind of outreach was that the translation has been a very expensive and. could not be provided by from the origin of the manga publishers. So that is one of the example that you listen from, you know, the two people from the outside the country that, you know, they are making a lot of efforts and then, you know, although the publishing company of Japan is working with them to address those issues about accessibility, it’s gonna be a very important comment and the question. Thank you very much. And then, you know, probably continuous approaches to the Japanese manga space gonna be a very much a beneficial.

Moderator:
Oh, Murai-san, thank you very much. And one of such efforts includes Manga Plus by Shueisha where the English, Spanish, Thai, Indonesian, or Georgian or Russian, such a language in 190 countries available for one, two, three, episode one, two, three, one, two, three, three, three, three, three, three, available, the latest three episodes are available for free and it’s just information from the one publisher. And there was also a question about loyalty rates for the manga artists and I can say that typically it’s a 10% of retail price. So I think that that’s the kind of question that was standard here. And is there any, so could you please, you first and then you, please, yeah.

Audience:
Thank you very much. My name is Charles Chaban from the International Trademark Association. Again, I’m here as a fan, too, and of course, I was very happy to see this session from the beginning, in fact, because intellectual property is something important to know properly, and to be honest, I was a little bit puzzled now from some of the comments, but as our father of the internet here, June, whom I met 20 years ago in ICANN, for all the different views, so in fact, I think I blame ourselves as some of the people in the intellectual property field, that copyright maybe is not known, but at the same time, copyright is something important, and it has a version that say that copyright is mainly, there is something called fair use, so when you say fair use, it’s so when someone see it for his own benefit, for learning, so it’s not against the knowledge, it’s part of me to protect the owner of the copyrighted material, to be sure he gets his own royalty, as was mentioned, and make the knowledge even more important, and so it’s just a comment, so I have no special question, just to thank you for what you done here, and to tell you that even in the 80s, I used to attend many of these programs you showed, by the way, even the older one, I’m older here, even in the Arabic language in Jordan, so it’s available before the internet even, thank you. Thank you very much, so please. Hello, I’ll be quick, I promise, I’m Felp, I’m part of the Brazilian youth delegation here, and I’m also, that panel is really important to me, my art since my childhood has always been very influenced by manga, and even on the other side of the world, the artistic power of manga influences many artists, other artists like me, so however, in my childhood, the possibility of. purchasing manga was very restricted where I lived, so I read and was inspired by the few titles that I could physically access that time. So thinking about this power of the manga to feed new artists that will come from all over the world with the internet, which ways of distributing manga online legally in Latin America, do you envisage that at this time, when we have so much piracy in countries that often don’t have platforms to access them in a legal way, that develop values already established artists and enhances artists that are yet to come?

Moderator:
Thank you very much.

Audience:
Hi, well my question is this, how much do you involve the youths in this fight against piracy? Because you know most of the pirates arise from our generation or maybe the following ones and I would think that if us as in my generation and the following ones understand how much manga is important and might disappear as a cause, as a result of the piracy, they will stand up as the first, you know, the army line against their fellow age group members and probably share the same technologies as in there will be new technologies and everything. So how much are the youths and the coming generations involved in this fight?

Jun Murai:
As for the youth, Bob? Well, yeah, thank you very much. As many of the youth, you know, participants on the IJF raised a voice and which is good and then they make very short things and then I remember the software pirates was around and then they know all the software users and the PC software users and game users. Bob, they… there was a, you know, very much a youth people, youth, young people standing up and then they started to work on a, you know, kind of a phrase that, you know, we don’t use illegally copied software type of a thing. And so, if you visit the booth of a publishing company about the pilots, pilot’s booth, then they have a very much attractive campaign for the other people, including the young people. So I think that they would be, you know, kind of a very powerful supporter about this movement. So I think that they would be a very powerful supporter about this movement.

Moderator:
Thank you very much, Moraisan. And it is what exactly I. So, yeah, again, thank you very much for valuable questions and insights. And so it’s already 16.14. So we are now, it seems that we are running out of time. There is also, yeah, a good question online, but yes, this is for another day. Again, thank you for joining us for this session. And as Moraisan said, please visit our booth at number two, IGF. The Arigato video is now being shown. And written by 16 artists handed out, if you think. And yeah, finally, give speakers and staffs a warm hand. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Arigato gozaimasu. Arigato gozaimasu. Arigato gozaimasu. Thank you very much.