{"id":56269,"date":"2026-01-29T17:24:40","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T08:24:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=56269"},"modified":"2026-01-29T17:28:47","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T08:28:47","slug":"massive-manga-piracy-site-bato-to-was-shut-down-in-collaborative-crackdown-by-japanese-and-chinese-publishers-coda-reports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/massive-manga-piracy-site-bato-to-was-shut-down-in-collaborative-crackdown-by-japanese-and-chinese-publishers-coda-reports\/","title":{"rendered":"Massive manga piracy site Bato.to was\u00a0shut down\u00a0in collaborative crackdown by Japanese and Chinese publishers, CODA reports\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Japan\u2019s\u00a0<strong>Content Overseas Distribution Association<\/strong>\u00a0(hereafter CODA)\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/coda-cj.jp\/en\/news\/830\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">announced<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0January 29 that a Chinese man who was running Bato.to, one of\u00a0the world\u2019s largest sites hosting pirated manga, has been\u00a0criminally\u00a0charged by local authorities on suspicion of violating copyright law.\u00a0According to the organization, the crackdown was\u00a0a collaborative effort between Japanese and\u00a0Chinese\u00a0publishers and law\u00a0enforcement.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On November 19 last year, Shanghai police reportedly searched the suspect\u2019s home, seizing\u00a0computers\u00a0and other equipment.\u00a0He\u00a0subsequently\u00a0admitted\u00a0to running a network of\u00a0approximately 60\u00a0piracy sites (including xbato.com, bato.to and mangapark.io), through which he earned\u00a0upwards of\u00a0$57,000 USD in\u00a0ad\u00a0revenue during peak months.\u00a0After being arrested and detained, he was\u00a0released\u00a0on\u00a0bail,\u00a0but\u00a0is expected to be formally indicted.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"ja\" dir=\"ltr\">2025\u5e7411\u670819\u65e5\u3001CODA\u306e\u544a\u767a\u306b\u3088\u308a\u3001\u4e16\u754c\u6700\u5927\u306e\u6f2b\u753b\u6d77\u8cca\u7248\u30b5\u30a4\u30c8\u300cBATO. TO\u300d\u306e\u904b\u55b6\u8005\u304c\u4e2d\u56fd\u3067\u5211\u4e8b\u6458\u767a\u3055\u308c\u307e\u3057\u305f\u3002\u7537\u6027\u306f\u30b5\u30a4\u30c8\u7fa4\u3059\u3079\u3066\u306e\u904b\u55b6\u3092\u8a8d\u3081\u3066\u304a\u308a\u3001\u305d\u306e\u5f8c1\u670819\u65e5\u307e\u3067\u306b60\u30b5\u30a4\u30c8\u3059\u3079\u3066\u306e\u9589\u9396\u304c\u78ba\u8a8d\u3055\u308c\u307e\u3057\u305f\u3002<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/S2nvHlnpVS\">https:\/\/t.co\/S2nvHlnpVS<\/a><\/p>&mdash; \u30b3\u30f3\u30c6\u30f3\u30c4\u6d77\u5916\u6d41\u901a\u4fc3\u9032\u6a5f\u69cb\uff08CODA\uff09 (@CODA_2002) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CODA_2002\/status\/2016664147363319878?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 29, 2026<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>According to CODA, the investigation was launched at the request of five major Japanese publishers&nbsp;(KADOKAWA, Kodansha,&nbsp;Shueisha,&nbsp;Shogakukan, and Square Enix),&nbsp;with CODA\u2019s Beijing office filing a criminal complaint with Chinese authorities on September 25, 2025.&nbsp;Additionally,&nbsp;China Literature&nbsp;Limited, a Tencent subsidiary that&nbsp;runs one of&nbsp;the&nbsp;country\u2019s largest online publishing platforms, also confirmed that its&nbsp;titles&nbsp;were being&nbsp;hosted on the sites in question,&nbsp;and joined in filing the complaint.&nbsp;While&nbsp;the sites remained online for some time after the&nbsp;suspected operator&nbsp;was detained&nbsp;in order to&nbsp;preserve evidence, all 60 sites were confirmed offline by January 19.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Given that Bato.to attracted a combined 7.2 billion visits over the 37-month period from October 2022 to October 2025, CODA considers this a big \u201cvictory\u201d against piracy of Japanese content, calculating that the economic impact amounts to&nbsp;over&nbsp;$5 billion&nbsp;USD. They report that after&nbsp;Bato.to\u2019s&nbsp;closure,&nbsp;the US-targeted manga platform&nbsp;MangaPlaza&nbsp;saw its daily sales&nbsp;roughly double.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Related:&nbsp;<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/piracy-of-japanese-games-and-anime-has-tripled-over-the-past-3-years-government-acknowledges-need-to-expand-legitimate-global-distribution-channels\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Piracy of Japanese games and anime has tripled over the past 3 years. Government acknowledges need to expand legitimate global distribution channels<\/strong><\/a><strong><\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japanese-court-orders-cloudfare-to-pay-damages-to-manga-publishers-for-facilitating-illegal-piracy-sites\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Japanese court orders Cloudfare to pay damages to manga publishers for \u201cfacilitating\u201d illegal piracy sites<\/strong><\/a><strong><\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>According to Japan&#8217;s CODA, five major Japanese publishers made the initial request for action against Bato.to and 60 related sites.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":56271,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,65],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-56269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-nongaming-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Massive manga piracy site Bato.to was\u00a0shut down\u00a0in collaborative crackdown by Japanese and Chinese publishers, CODA reports\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"According to Japan&#039;s CODA, five major Japanese publishers made the initial request for action against Bato.to and 60 related sites.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/massive-manga-piracy-site-bato-to-was-shut-down-in-collaborative-crackdown-by-japanese-and-chinese-publishers-coda-reports\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Massive manga piracy site Bato.to was\u00a0shut down\u00a0in collaborative crackdown by Japanese and Chinese publishers, CODA reports\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"According to Japan&#039;s CODA, five major Japanese publishers made the initial request for action against Bato.to and 60 related sites.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/massive-manga-piracy-site-bato-to-was-shut-down-in-collaborative-crackdown-by-japanese-and-chinese-publishers-coda-reports\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-01-29T08:24:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-01-29T08:28:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/20240429-56269-header.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1278\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"798\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Amber V\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Amber V\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Massive manga piracy site Bato.to was\u00a0shut down\u00a0in collaborative crackdown by Japanese and Chinese publishers, CODA reports\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST","description":"According to Japan's CODA, five major Japanese publishers made the initial request for action against Bato.to and 60 related sites.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/massive-manga-piracy-site-bato-to-was-shut-down-in-collaborative-crackdown-by-japanese-and-chinese-publishers-coda-reports\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Massive manga piracy site Bato.to was\u00a0shut down\u00a0in collaborative crackdown by Japanese and Chinese publishers, CODA reports\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST","og_description":"According to Japan's CODA, five major Japanese publishers made the initial request for action against Bato.to and 60 related sites.","og_url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/massive-manga-piracy-site-bato-to-was-shut-down-in-collaborative-crackdown-by-japanese-and-chinese-publishers-coda-reports\/","og_site_name":"AUTOMATON WEST","article_published_time":"2026-01-29T08:24:40+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-01-29T08:28:47+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1278,"height":798,"url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/20240429-56269-header.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Amber V","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_site":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Amber V","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/massive-manga-piracy-site-bato-to-was-shut-down-in-collaborative-crackdown-by-japanese-and-chinese-publishers-coda-reports\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/massive-manga-piracy-site-bato-to-was-shut-down-in-collaborative-crackdown-by-japanese-and-chinese-publishers-coda-reports\/"},"author":{"name":"Amber V","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/fdc6517a00e35b6917ffdb02e8b574d9"},"headline":"Massive manga piracy site Bato.to was\u00a0shut down\u00a0in collaborative crackdown by Japanese and Chinese publishers, CODA reports\u00a0","datePublished":"2026-01-29T08:24:40+00:00","dateModified":"2026-01-29T08:28:47+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/massive-manga-piracy-site-bato-to-was-shut-down-in-collaborative-crackdown-by-japanese-and-chinese-publishers-coda-reports\/"},"wordCount":379,"commentCount":4,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/massive-manga-piracy-site-bato-to-was-shut-down-in-collaborative-crackdown-by-japanese-and-chinese-publishers-coda-reports\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/20240429-56269-header.jpg","keywords":["News (Japan-related)"],"articleSection":["News","Non-Gaming News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/massive-manga-piracy-site-bato-to-was-shut-down-in-collaborative-crackdown-by-japanese-and-chinese-publishers-coda-reports\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/massive-manga-piracy-site-bato-to-was-shut-down-in-collaborative-crackdown-by-japanese-and-chinese-publishers-coda-reports\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/massive-manga-piracy-site-bato-to-was-shut-down-in-collaborative-crackdown-by-japanese-and-chinese-publishers-coda-reports\/","name":"Massive manga piracy site Bato.to was\u00a0shut down\u00a0in collaborative crackdown by Japanese and Chinese publishers, CODA reports\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/massive-manga-piracy-site-bato-to-was-shut-down-in-collaborative-crackdown-by-japanese-and-chinese-publishers-coda-reports\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/massive-manga-piracy-site-bato-to-was-shut-down-in-collaborative-crackdown-by-japanese-and-chinese-publishers-coda-reports\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/20240429-56269-header.jpg","datePublished":"2026-01-29T08:24:40+00:00","dateModified":"2026-01-29T08:28:47+00:00","description":"According to Japan's CODA, five major Japanese publishers made the initial request for action against Bato.to and 60 related sites.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/massive-manga-piracy-site-bato-to-was-shut-down-in-collaborative-crackdown-by-japanese-and-chinese-publishers-coda-reports\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/massive-manga-piracy-site-bato-to-was-shut-down-in-collaborative-crackdown-by-japanese-and-chinese-publishers-coda-reports\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/massive-manga-piracy-site-bato-to-was-shut-down-in-collaborative-crackdown-by-japanese-and-chinese-publishers-coda-reports\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/20240429-56269-header.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/20240429-56269-header.jpg","width":1278,"height":798,"caption":"Image via CODA"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/massive-manga-piracy-site-bato-to-was-shut-down-in-collaborative-crackdown-by-japanese-and-chinese-publishers-coda-reports\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"\u30db\u30fc\u30e0","item":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Massive manga piracy site Bato.to was\u00a0shut down\u00a0in collaborative crackdown by Japanese and Chinese publishers, CODA reports\u00a0"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/","name":"AUTOMATON WEST","description":"AUTOMATON is a website that covers the Japanese gaming world. We bring you the news on video games from Osaka and Tokyo.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization","name":"\u682a\u5f0f\u4f1a\u793e\u30a2\u30af\u30c6\u30a3\u30d6\u30b2\u30fc\u30df\u30f3\u30b0\u30e1\u30c7\u30a3\u30a2","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/activegamingmedia_logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/activegamingmedia_logo.png","width":374,"height":190,"caption":"\u682a\u5f0f\u4f1a\u793e\u30a2\u30af\u30c6\u30a3\u30d6\u30b2\u30fc\u30df\u30f3\u30b0\u30e1\u30c7\u30a3\u30a2"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/AUTOMATON_ENG","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCabvYnvuUUbbGUrxkaFRgSA"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/fdc6517a00e35b6917ffdb02e8b574d9","name":"Amber V","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/12252024-100x100.jpg","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/12252024-100x100.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/12252024-100x100.jpg","caption":"Amber V"},"description":"Editor-in-Chief since October 2023. She grew up playing Duke Nukem and Wolfenstein with her dad, and is now enamored with obscure Japanese video games and internet culture. Currently devoted to growing Automaton West to the size of its Japanese sister-site, while making sure to keep news concise and developer stories deep and stimulating.","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/author\/amber-vjestica\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56269"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56269\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56274,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56269\/revisions\/56274"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}