November 25, 2020
General Incorporated Association ABJ
Safer Internet Association

ABJ and SIA Partner to Combat Manga Piracy Sites—Promoting cooperation among publishers, telecom providers, and IT firms to rapidly build a
private-sector partnership that provides information on and raises awareness of manga piracy
Sites—TOKYO—November 25, 2020—The Safer Internet Association (SIA) today announced analliance with General Incorporated Association ABJ (ABJ) to combat online manga piracy.
Founded in July 2020, ABJ is a consortium of 66 organizations (as of November 2; includes
supporting organizations), including publishers, writers’ associations, electronic book stores,
content delivery platforms, and telecom and IT service providers. ABJ was formed to promote
the Authorized Books of Japan (ABJ) certification for legitimate services, to create and managea list of manga piracy sites, and to raise awareness of manga piracy.
Founded in 2013, SIA is an association of like-minded Internet-based companies that aims tocreate a safer, more secure Internet for society. It works with national ministries and agencies,
local governments, and related organizations and businesses to tackle the various problems
associated with the Internet, with initiatives that include a hotline for reporting illegal, harmful, ordefamatory information on the Internet.
In 2018, Professor George Shishido (Graduate School of Law and Politics, University ofTokyo) and Kensaku Fukui (attorney at law, Kotto Dori Law Office) joined SIA to organize aworkgroup of ABJ-member publishers and telecom/IT service providers. This workgroup would
begin a dialogue on how the private sector can combat manga piracy websites. Simultaneously,
SIA began building a partnership framework to focus on the same goal, as it works with related
businesses and organizations to raise awareness of the issues.
In coordination with SIA, ABJ will provide information on pirate sites to security companies
and others to curb access to these sites. This initiative aims to provide information on ABJconfirmed manga piracy sites to web filtering firms, security companies, and other partners thatendorse this initiative. Partner companies will use this information in their products and services,and they will enhance their filtering and security functions to curb user access to pirated manga.
For inquiries on this press release, contact:● General Incorporated Association ABJ
Tel/Fax: +81-3-6912-2730 Email: info@abj.or.jp● Safer Internet Association
Tel: +81-3-6380-9223 Email: info@saferinternet.or.jp

In conducting this initiative, ABJ and SIA will seek a broad spectrum of opinions from publishers,
partners, and other relevant organizations, while always respecting freedom of expression. They
will also work with publishers, telecom providers, and IT firms to promote the fight against
manga piracy through awareness campaigns aimed at search engine operators and the generalpublic.

For inquiries on this press release, contact:● General Incorporated Association ABJ
Tel/Fax: +81-3-6912-2730 Email: info@abj.or.jp● Safer Internet Association
Tel: +81-3-6380-9223 Email: info@saferinternet.or.jp

Partners in providing information on manga piracy sites (in alphabetical order)
Allot Communications Japan K.K.
Alps System Integration Co., Ltd.
BBSS Corporation
Digital Arts Inc.
McAfee Co., Ltd.
SOURCENEXT Corporation
Trend Micro Incorporated
As of November 25, 2020

For inquiries on this press release, contact:● General Incorporated Association ABJ
Tel/Fax: +81-3-6912-2730 Email: info@abj.or.jp● Safer Internet Association
Tel: +81-3-6380-9223 Email: info@saferinternet.or.jp

Search engines joining to raise awareness (in alphabetical order)
Google: Through the Google Ad Grants program, ads on Shuppan Koho Center’s “Stop Online
Piracy!” are shown on search resultsfor queries related to Manga piracy

Yahoo Japan: It is posting ads directing users who search via its search engine service for
keywords related to manga piracy to the Shuppan Koho Center’s “Stop Manga Piracy!” website.

Partners joining to raise awareness among the general population (in alphabetical order)
For inquiries on this press release, contact:● General Incorporated Association ABJ
Tel/Fax: +81-3-6912-2730 Email: info@abj.or.jp● Safer Internet Association
Tel: +81-3-6380-9223 Email: info@saferinternet.or.jp

The Japan Internet Safety Promotion Association (JISPA): It is publishing information on thiscampaign in its “Internet Safety Newsletter,” which it distributes at elementary and junior highschools in Tokyo, Nagano, and other prefectures.

The Telecommunications Carriers Association and the Shuppan Koho Center: In a tie-up withthe popular manga Detective Conan, these organizations produced an educational video topromote the use of filtering services, to draw attention to the dangers of reading manga on
pirate sites, and to ask readers to use legitimate services that display the ABJ mark. The video
plays at the mobile phone shops of partner member companies and on the Association’s
website. Watch the video at the following link:

https://www.tca.or.jp/mobile/filtering.html?tab=2
The Foundation for Multimedia Communications: Through its lectures on E-Net Caravan, aneducational campaign it runs, the Foundation discusses copyrights and the dangers of piracy,
showcases an eight-panel comic strip for “Stop Manga Piracy!” and distributes clear file folders
it created for the campaign.
https://www.fmmc.or.jp/e-netcaravan/

For inquiries on this press release, contact:● General Incorporated Association ABJ
Tel/Fax: +81-3-6912-2730 Email: info@abj.or.jp● Safer Internet Association
Tel: +81-3-6380-9223 Email: info@saferinternet.or.jp

About General Incorporated Association ABJ
ABJ is a general incorporated association founded on Wednesday, July 1, 2020, to lead the fightagainst Internet-based manga piracy. Though the Mangamura incident is fresh in the minds ofthose involved in the e-book market, piracy continues to cause havoc and attracts more traffic
than Mangamura in its heyday.
In response to the situation, publishers partnered with authors, e-book distributors, and telecom
carriers to launch the “Stop Manga Piracy!” campaign. The partnership created the ABJ symbol
for authorized e-book sellers and asked these sellers to display the emblem so that readers canconfirm their use of authorized services. As of October 22, 2020, 183 operators and 755
services have received ABJ certification.
These anti-piracy activities must be a long-term, sustained effort rather than just a short, one-off
campaign. Understanding this need, the partnership established ABJ, a general incorporated
association, as a collaboration among the authors, publishers, and e-book distributors that havedirectly suffered due to piracy, as well as the telecom carriers that play a crucial role in content
distribution.
https://www.abj.or.jp/
About the Safer Internet Association
The Safer Internet Association was established in 2013 to create a better Internet for society.
The Association operates two hotlines: Safe Line, launched in November 2013, is its flagshipprivate initiative, while the Internet Hotline Center, established in April 2016, is a projectcommissioned by the National Police Agency. The Association comprehensively contributes tocreating a safer, more secure Internet-oriented society through its educational projects topromote safe and secure Internet use and its efforts to develop healthy e-commerce practices.
In 2020, it also began an initiative related to online slander and defamation.
http://www.saferinternet.or.jp/

For inquiries on this press release, contact:● General Incorporated Association ABJ
Tel/Fax: +81-3-6912-2730 Email: info@abj.or.jp● Safer Internet Association
Tel: +81-3-6380-9223 Email: info@saferinternet.or.jp