Japanese publishers face staggering losses of up to $5 billion annually due to manga piracy. As NHK World stated, it can take up to a month for a manga to be translated manually from Japanese to other international languages like English or Chinese. Pirates exploit this delay and rush unauthorized versions of the manga online, something that takes a direct hit on both the profits as well as artists’ royalties.
Demand for translated manga far exceeds supply. Take for instance the New York branch of the Japanese bookstore Kinokuniya. Fans eagerly await new releases, but many titles remain untranslated. Kinokuniya manager Nagai Yasunobu notes manga’s surging popularity and stresses the need for translated works to appear quickly to satisfy the demand of global readers. With no alternatives in sight, readers opt for the next best solution, which happens to be the pirated versions.
It is here that advanced AI technologies come into the picture. Tokyo startup Mantra is keen to change the scenario with its AI-driven manga translation system. Their technology converts Japanese manga into multiple languages swiftly, reducing translation times from over a month to just two days. Mantra CEO Ishiwatari Shonosuke said one way to combat piracy is to make available translated copies of Japanese manga quickly, something that can deter readers from going for pirated copies. This is one way manga piracy can be dealt with effectively.
“In the future, we’re hoping to get manga in multiple languages into the readers’ hands in real-time. That’s ultimately what we’re after,” said Shonosuke.
However, concerns persist over AI’s ability to capture manga’s unique nuances, which Mantra wishes to tackle using human translators. The company’s strategy is to use technology to get the manga translated. The translated work is then put through a human checking procedure to ensure the translated work reflects the original in the truest sense of the term. Shonosuke too has admitted their AI tool is not fully capable of doing a good translation yet. It occasionally faces challenges in identifying and including subject words like “I,” “you,” “he,” and “she,” which are often omitted in the original Japanese.
Kamimura Saki from the Japan Association of Translators has also raised quality concerns but is advocating for a human-AI partnership in translation. Other publishers are also looking to harness the power of AI in combating piracy. The basic strategy is the same, that of making available translations of the original works quickly enough for the readers to opt for the official works instead of pirated copies. Apart from curbing piracy, such efforts can also potentially lower manga prices, making the genre more accessible worldwide.
The Japanese government has also been supporting manga’s global growth through initiatives like the “Cool Japan” campaign, targeting $125 billion in entertainment exports by 2033. Global propagation of manga will also help Japan project its soft power in more regions of the world. Also, while stakeholders debate the role of AI in maintaining translation quality while meeting the growing global demand for manga, there is unanimous agreement on its role in combating piracy.
With a keen interest in tech, I make it a point to keep myself updated on the latest developments in technology and gadgets. That includes smartphones or tablet devices but stretches to even AI and self-driven automobiles, the latter being my latest fad. Besides writing, I like watching videos, reading, listening to music, or experimenting with different recipes. The motion picture is another aspect that interests me a lot, and I’ll likely make a film sometime in the future.
