On june 5 of this year the government of japan unanimously passed two new amendments to their existing copyright laws to figth against the issue of illegal downloads and piracy of anime in japan.
The first amendments will tackles the "leech websites" that hosts the content on their site for streaming and other use with penalties of up to 5 years in jail of a fine of 5 million yen.
The second part however looks at the illegal downloading of manga with penalties of up to 2 years inprison or a fine of 2 million yen which will take effect on January 1, 2021.
Luckily for the anime and manga enthusiasts, The Japan's top studios combined to launch they very owned free streaming Youtube Channel called "Animelog".
Currently, this channel is only available in Japan, but the plan is to open it up to other markets. To be specific, subtitles are being planned for English and Chinese speakers as both markets still rely on torrent sites at times.
Animelog's launch in Japan has been soft with shows like Black Jack and Future Boy Conan being posted. The ultimate goal is to shared 3,000 anime shows coming from:
Toei Animation
Kodansha
Nippon Animation
Tezuka Productions
Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions
Shinei Animation
Hopefully we can freely watch the latest episodes of anime thanks to these studios and their help to make us "anime lovers" do whats make us happy.
Yeah. Japan got more strict when it comes to anime and manga piracy. It is a great thing to know that there is a free streaming service in Youtube.