Foreigners Arrested in Japan for Illegally Posting Shonen Jump Manga Online

In Japan, two foreign residents have been arrested for breaking a serious law regarding manga. The two are suspected of uploading images from the popular manga magazine Weekly Shonen Jump before the magazine was publicly published. The suspected people are currently being held while waiting for the final trial.

The news came via NHK, Japan's biggest news website. The news was big enough that it was also officially translated into English for NHK World, the foreign-language news website that usually only picks up on the biggest stories in Japan. Because the suspects are foreign, and because it is related to manga and anime, the news of their arrest has already gathered a lot of interest and attention, setting it apart from more typical crimes that have also occurred.

No matter what country you are in, rules related to the release date of any media (called its «street date») are very strict. Video games, books, TV shows, movies, and even manga and anime all have to abide by rules related to street dates. Breaking these rules can result in anything from serious fines to jail time; it is not a minor crime, even though it may seem so at first.

The official accusation against the two foreigners is for copyright infringement. One of them, Moussa Samir, works for a company called Japan Deal World that sells anime goods from Japan to the rest of the world. The suspicion is that Samir and his accomplice used their connections to get a hold of the issues of Weekly Shonen Jump in advance of its scheduled publication.

The two have been accused of taking the images from Weekly Shonen Jump and publishing them online before their official street date. Not only were the images circulating online, they were in full color, and had been translated into several languages already. They were also uploaded on multiple websites and social media networks as well. Thus, the two have been arrested not only for uploading the images but for distributing them on multiple platforms.

So far, both have