Manga translation company Orange is expanding authorized translations through the Emaqi platform to combat global piracy [1, 2].
This initiative addresses a critical supply gap in the publishing industry. When official translations cannot keep pace with international interest, readers often turn to illegal sites to access content, undermining the revenue of creators and publishers.
Shoko Ugaki, the CEO of Orange, said the current imbalance between availability and interest is a primary driver of the piracy problem. The company is utilizing Emaqi to increase the volume of licensed content available to a worldwide audience [1, 2].
“There is a global demand for manga worldwide, and there’s far more demands than any content that’s officially translated right now, and that’s a very big issue,” Ugaki said [1].
By scaling the production of authorized translations, Orange intends to provide a legal alternative that matches the speed and accessibility of pirate sites. The strategy focuses on meeting the existing demand rather than relying solely on enforcement or the removal of illegal content [1, 2].
Ugaki said the goal is to ensure that the global appetite for Japanese comics is met through legitimate channels. This approach recognizes that piracy is often a symptom of accessibility failures rather than a simple lack of willingness to pay for content [1, 2].
“There is a global demand for manga worldwide, and there’s far more demands than any content that’s officially translated right now”
The shift toward increasing the volume of authorized translations suggests a move away from traditional copyright litigation and toward a market-based solution. By treating piracy as a distribution failure rather than a legal one, companies like Orange are attempting to capture untapped global markets that have historically been ignored by slow-moving traditional publishing cycles.
