Japan is planning to use AI to help stop illegal websites that offer free anime and manga downloads. These websites are said to be causing huge financial losses, with Japanese publishers claiming they lose billions of dollars every year. There are at least 1,000 of these sites.

Under a pilot program worth 300 million yen ($2 million), Japan's cultural agency plans to use AI to search the web for sites that illegally share manga and anime. The AI will use an image and text detection system to find pirated content. Keiko Momii, an official from the agency, said that copyright holders currently spend a lot of time and effort manually finding pirated material online.

The cultural agency said that human moderators can "barely keep up" with the growing number of illegal websites. This AI initiative is part of the agency's budget request for this fiscal year, which ends in March. The project is inspired by a similar one in South Korea, and if it proves successful, it could also be used to tackle the illegal sharing of films and music.

Known for creating iconic anime like "Dragon Ball" and popular game franchises such as "Super Mario" and "Final Fantasy," Japan views its creative industries as a key driver of economic growth, on par with industries like steel and semiconductors.

In its updated "Cool Japan" strategy released in June, the Japanese government is planning to increase exports of its cultural products, like anime and manga, to 20 trillion yen ($130 billion) by 2033.

According to Japanese publishers, around 70% of pirated sites offering Japanese content are in foreign languages such as English, Chinese, and Vietnamese. In 2022, Japan's gaming, anime, and manga industries earned 4.7 trillion yen ($30 billion) from overseas, nearly matching the 5.7 trillion yen from microchip exports, according to government data.