‘One Piece’ leaks? Shonen Jump manga leakers arrested in Tokyo

Manga leaks are the order of the day, and it is very common for full chapters of ‘One Piece’, ‘Jujutsu Kaisen’ and other popular series to appear on the Internet several days before their official release. A problem that worries publishers and of course the creators of the works, and now the Japanese police have managed to arrest in Tokyo the people responsible for leaking the manga of the popular magazine Weekly Shonen Jump.

Shueisha Publishing said in a statement, “On February 4, 2024, executives of a Tokyo-based company and others were arrested by the Kumamoto Prefectural Police and Niigata Prefectural Police Joint Investigation Headquarters on suspicion of violating the Copyright Act. The suspects obtained and digitized ‘Weekly Shonen Jump’ published by our company prior to its release date and uploaded it to a pirate site without permission.”

Manga leaks becoming more common

As more of these leaks appear, Shueisha has promised to investigate the source of the leaks. Followers of their works resort to them to read the chapters days before their release, and we will have to see if these arrests slow down these movements and the new chapters of such prominent series as ‘One Piece’ take longer to reach the Internet.

Shueisha went on to say in its release that “early leaks, in which the contents of a manga magazine are illegally uploaded before the official release date, often spread through social networks and other sites, depriving readers of the pleasure of anticipating the release of the series. This also causes great distress to the authors, and our company considers it extremely problematic. As such, we believe that the recent arrest ... is a major step forward in resolving the program and will prevent future damage. We will continue to actively take all possible measures to protect the works that creators have poured their hearts into and to ensure that our readers can enjoy manga.”