BitTorrent Enforcement in Japan: Scale, Legal Basis and Criminal Exposure

This note is a general overview of Japanese law and public statistics, written for an exchange of views among practitioners. It is not legal advice, does not concern any specific case, and is not an offer of legal services in any jurisdiction.

The scale of disclosure requests

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) reports that, of 154,484 requests for disclosure of sender information made to access providers in 2024 (Reiwa 6), 147,746 requests, about 95.6 percent, concerned copyright infringement of adult videos through a specific peer-to-peer file-sharing software. According to the MIC, most of these requests were made outside court proceedings.

These figures count requests, not infringers. A single request may cover many communication logs, and several requests may relate to the same subscriber or the same work. Requests, logs and actual users should therefore be distinguished when the figures are compared with data from other countries.

Why participation can infringe

BitTorrent divides a file into pieces that participants exchange with one another. A participant can upload pieces it has already obtained before its own download is complete. As a result, taking part in a swarm can engage several exclusive rights at once:

• Storing pieces on a device: the right of reproduction.
• Making pieces available to others: the right of making transmittable.
• Actually sending pieces to other participants: the right of public transmission.

It is therefore not a defence, in principle, that a participant only wanted to watch the work. Separately, since January 1, 2021, downloading content while knowing that it was uploaded unlawfully can be unlawful in Japan for works of all kinds, not only music and video.

Criminal exposure

Criminal enforcement has concentrated on the first uploaders who place a work into circulation and on those who share works in large volume or repeatedly. Under the Copyright Act, unauthorized uploading and similar infringement is punishable by imprisonment of up to ten years, a fine of up to ten million yen, or both. Certain knowing and repeated unlawful downloading is also subject to criminal penalties, which are lower. Please consult the statute and the guidance of the Agency for Cultural Affairs for the exact conditions.

Source

• Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, press release on the inappropriate use of P2P file-sharing software and copyright infringement: https://www.soumu.go.jp/menu_news/s-news/01ryutsu02_02000460.html

Questions we would like to compare

• How do the volumes of disclosure requests in your jurisdiction compare, and how are they counted?
• Which exclusive rights are relied on against swarm participants, and does downloading alone create liability?
• How is criminal enforcement divided between first uploaders and ordinary participants?

If you would like to exchange views, please write to us. We will discuss the law and practice in general terms only.