580 copyright violators will receive content removal requests beginning Friday

The Japanese government, along with 15 anime production companies and manga publishers, will initiate an anti-piracy campaign, focusing predominately on China, next month. The Cultural Affairs Agency estimates a loss of 560 billion (about US$5.5 billion) yen to Chinese piracy in major cities in 2012. The Ministry of Economy estimated damages of two trillion yen (US$19.6 billion) from America in 2013.

The enforcement will begin on Friday and span five months. It will cover 500 manga titles and 80 anime titles with online reading, storage, video sharing, and torrent sites marked as specific targets. The companies and government will begin sending requests for content removal on Friday to about 580 identified violators.

The companies involved, as well as Japan's Content Overseas Distribution Association (CODA), and Tokyo Otaku Mode also started the "Manga Anime Guardians" project (MAG) in order to protect manga and anime content overseas. The project's website, which opened on Wednesday, provides a search engine for manga and anime titles and then directs users to legal avenues to obtain them.

The project uploaded a "thank you" movie with anime characters expressing their gratitude with music by Yoko Ishida , Sayaka Sasaki , Chihiro Yonekura , and JAM Project 's Hironobu Kageyama .

Thanks to Amanda H. for the news tip.

Source: Internet Watch, The Japan Times