One Piece & Jujutsu Kaisen leakers arrested as police reveal stolen haul
CrunchyrollTwo suspected manga leakers have been arrested in Japan, with police seizing a huge haul of Jujutsu Kaisen, One Piece, and other Shonen Jump material.
Both men, aged 36 and 34, are foreign nationals based in Tokyo. They have been accused of violating copyright law after publishing early scans from Shonen Jump Magazine, revealing key plot points from mangas like Jujutsu Kaisen and One Piece which are then shared across social media.
Leaks have become a regular part of the manga cycle, with titles often going viral in the lead-up to a chapter’s release. There are several notable leak accounts online, including @OPSCANS and @JJK_Mya.
According to local authorities, the two men have denied some of the charges, stating that they hadn’t made the images public themselves.
Police reveal Jujutsu Kaisen and One Piece haul after leaker arrests
As per The Asahi Shimbun, police believe an early copy of Shonen Jump was acquired by the leakers in March last year. “The two conspired to publish the latest episode of a manga currently being serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump on an internet site around March 15, 2023, before the magazine’s release date,” the outlet wrote.
The suspects have also been accused of “taking an image of a manga that was released five days before its release and copying it using a smartphone,” as reported by NHK. Police believe the men were involved in several Jujutsu Kaisen and One Piece leaks prior to Shonen Jump’s release, and investigations are ongoing into other people who may be involved in the operation.
Shueisha, Shonen Jump’s publisher, said in a statement: “We hope that the police’s clarification of the ‘spoiler’ route will help prevent further damage in the future. We will continue to take all possible measures to protect the rights to the works that the authors have put their heart and soul into, and to ensure that readers can enjoy the manga in an appropriate manner.”
Minya Tomishige, head of the Intellectual Property Division at Shueisha, also said (via @sandman_ap): “The fact that works are being read for free has resulted in a situation where the authors are not receiving fair profit. We believe that taking pictures of manga works without permission and leaking them on SNS constitutes an infringement of copyright, and we ask that such behavior be stopped. It is an unforgivable act that could shake the very structure of the industry itself.”
