Japan’s METI (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry) announced the results of its survey on online piracy of Japanese content on January 26. According to the results, damages from piracy in 2025 rose to 5.7 trillion yen (about $36.9 billion USD), which is almost three times higher than the 2 trillion ($12.9 billion USD) in damages recorded in a past survey from 2022. However, as ITMedia News reports, from 2025, new categories like “character merchandise” were also included in the survey, and if we take them into account as well, the overall damages for this year total 10.4 trillion yen (about $67.4 billion USD).
The survey targeted consumers from Japan, China, Vietnam, France, America and Brazil, and an estimate cost of damage caused by online piracy of Japanese content was calculated based on their responses. The collected data was analyzed across five major categories – film (including anime and video content), publishing (books, manga, etc.), music, video games and character merch – with all categories seeing almost a triple rise in the amount of damages in the past 3 years; most notable ones being publications at 2.6 trillion yen and film at 2.3 trillion yen (excluding the aforementioned character merchandise piracy damages). Video games follow at 500 billion yen in damages, with 100 billion yen in damages for music piracy.
While the Japanese government says that the amount of pirated content consumed per person has decreased compared to past years, the total price of damages seems to have risen. This is due to factors such as fluctuations in prices and exchange rates, an overall rise in online users who consume pirated content, and the accelerating popularity of Japanese content overseas.
METI promises that it will continue its efforts to reduce the damage caused by online piracy of content. As some of the measures they have been working on implementing, they cite establishing new bases for cooperating with local authorities, strengthening litigation systems, strengthening frameworks against copyright infringement by generative AI and counterfeit merchandise, as well as establishing rights ownership databases that could help speed up litigation procedures.
However, the government also notes that as long as there is demand for Japanese content, pirated versions are bound to emerge regardless of how strong their anti-piracy measures are, which is why its main goal will be to “guide consumers of pirated content to legal means of usage.” Therefore, it promises to continue supporting the expansion of global streaming and distribution platforms which handle Japanese content.
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