Japan Reportedly Offering $70 Million to Encourage AI-Generated Translations

Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) is reportedly set to offer 15 companies a new "overseas promotion" subsidy aimed at expanding original manga, anime and live-action markets. The package, an unannounced 11.5 billion yen (roughly $70 million), would be offered to nine anime and manga publishers and aims to "encourage" them to use generative artificial intelligence for translations to pump out content faster in foreign markets.

METI is said to hope that using generative AI for translations will curb piracy, since unofficial translations are reaching overseas viewers faster than official ones. The likely recipients include Crunchyroll, Shueisha, Kodansha, Square Enix and Bandai Namco, though the ministry has not officially revealed the program.

Six of the other companies set to receive the subsidy would come from music, gaming and live-action sectors, but it is unclear which firms those are or how the funds would be divided.

Japan

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