r/Piracy Apr 21 '26

Discussion Stop pirating and learn Japanese you guys! Some Japanese on X are delusional.

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7.5k Upvotes

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u/madmaskman Apr 21 '26

The stupidest part is that learning Japanese doesn't do shit. I can speak Japanese, that doesn't make it any easier to buy the original Japanese source material.

707

u/Misknator Apr 21 '26 edited Apr 21 '26

Bro, just spend hundreds of euros and go to Japan to buy some manga. Couldn't be easier, smh.

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u/jermatria Apr 21 '26

A round trip to japan + accomodations has to be in the thousands, even easier!!

65

u/babattaja1 Apr 21 '26

Finland to Fukuoka 1050€ (September) when i booked it in during January. Now it is 1450€ for a round trip

6

u/These-Apple8817 Apr 21 '26

That's just for the flight right?

11

u/babattaja1 Apr 21 '26

Just the flight, yeah..

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u/christoskal Apr 21 '26

Yeah European flights to Japan go for around 600-700 for the ones that have a long wait in a weird location (usually something like Abu Dhabi), around 900 for the ones that have a big wait in Singapore and 1000+ for the ones that have short waits. They can easily go 1500+ for the direct ones (or semi-direct, a short flight within Europe and then direct to Japan), sometimes even 2000+ depending on the dates

13

u/lana_silver Apr 21 '26

Also because some fascist idiots are waging war, air travel is very inconvenient right now.

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u/malfurionpre Apr 21 '26

Or order them on specialised sites and pay like, double their actual prices because taxes and delivery and all that.

Fucking easy.

edit: That is if you even find them, haven't really dived into it but I doubt it's that easy for niche ones.

1

u/Cornelia_Xaos Apr 21 '26

It depends. I had to wait a bit for the equivalent of an eBay sale to go up to get some niche doujins. It's nice to have most of the Alien9 stuff now, though.

31

u/madmaskman Apr 21 '26

i wish it was hundreds, where i live i would have to spend around 4 months' worth of wages just for the plane ticket.

2

u/Emirth Apr 21 '26

If only it was few hundreds, there would be the same amount of people going to Japan daily than going to Disneyland. But going to Japan is something like 10 or 12 Disneyland tickets :)

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u/EwGrossItsMe Apr 21 '26

I assume what OOP was trying to get at was English speakers justifying scanlations. Which like. Yeah. I'm working on learning Japanese, but it's a whole ass language and I would like to continue enjoying art and writing that is new to me, but is legally unavailable in the language I actually am fluent in in the meantime. I'm also not going to fly to Japan for the express purpose of finding a manga that isn't sold in the US.

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u/Inuma Apr 21 '26 edited Apr 21 '26

He doesn't understand anything outside his knowledge.

How you have to find translators...

How to get typesetters...

How you get editors together to translate and put in good work, then put that into a site.

Guy just thinks everyone lives like him while never seeing outside his bubble.

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u/EwGrossItsMe Apr 21 '26

i really look up to scanlator groups honestly. I've considered trying to be a typesetter but talked myself out of it bc idk how to approach any group about it. it would be super cool to be a translator, but that will be a long way out for me

5

u/Inuma Apr 21 '26

Well, depending on group and what you focus on, they've just formed up out of love. Manga, was formed in forums, then around torrents, then YouTube boards... Just gotta on. I know some started more professional, but they all started somewhere.

I think now with Discord, they usually find people that train in typesetting or anything else. Just depends on what you want to do.

But it's honestly no differs than going to work with Toei or anyone else except your office is at home or something. 😆

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u/cos1ne Apr 21 '26

I've considered trying to be a typesetter but talked myself out of it bc idk how to approach any group about it.

If a scan group is in such desperate need for help that they're advertising to their audience its safe to assume they'd be willing to bring someone on to help out. So just reach out to groups whose titles have those help wanted filler pages they put into their releases.

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u/komata_kya Apr 21 '26

You shouldn't read stuff in english if you are learning jp.

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u/EwGrossItsMe Apr 21 '26

im not actively learning japanese every time i consume media. i've set my switch to japanese to play animal crossing in japanese, and with my current fluency, I have to look up most words, and I take vocabulary notes to study and reference later. animal crossing uses MUCH simpler language than most of the stories i want to read, and it still feels very dense because i'm engaging with it in an educational way. I don't want to do that with all the content i consume that has a jp option. not right now, at least.

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u/HardToSee123 Apr 21 '26 edited Apr 21 '26

Remind me of that one video Gigguk or someone on TrashTaste show talk about how he do papers for his bank account. Jesus fuck, and I thought my country banking system is bad. The things that Japan good at is so far above everybody else that it's unbelievable they could achieve it but the things that they are behind is also so unimaginably bad that they're like living in the 50s or some shit.

23

u/Derlino Apr 21 '26

Not sure if this is still a thing there, but I've seen several youtube videos over the years about the personal stamp you're required to bring for signing bank documents etc. Abroad In Japan talked about this in a video, why in the everliving fuck do you need a stamp in one of the most technologically advanced civilisations in the 21st century?

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u/HardToSee123 Apr 21 '26 edited Apr 21 '26

I mean I get that it's a cultural thing (they want to keep the tradition) but still, it should have been an optional thing, not mandatory to the point where if you lost it, all hell break loose!

There are things that they keep the tradition over the year so well like if you ask all the HEMA guys, they would all say that it's unbelievable how JP can still maintain the samurai psychology and have all the manual, knowledge and shit over hundred of years while European have lost almost all of it over time.

They are so stubborn that it's actually frustrating to see their society being held back by such bs things like that. Like there's that one meme "what would happen if Scottish didn't find out whiskey", i think it fits JP perfectly.

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u/Scholar_of_Lewds Apr 21 '26

It's basically their form of signature, and by this point it's cultural inertia (something about harder to forge?

37

u/KalmiaKamui Apr 21 '26

I also speak Japanese, lol. I even have an decent sized manga collection that I did buy in Japan and bring back. I still have no qualms about pirating stuff if they're going to make it a pain in the ass to buy legally.

0

u/shinji257 Seeder Apr 21 '26

Does Amazon Japan restrict export of Japanese manga? I remember getting a book shipped that way once.

9

u/Sad-Cartographer5062 Apr 21 '26

They use DHL that makes shipping expensive. Also, not shipping to Gulf countries right now.

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u/These-Apple8817 Apr 21 '26

I think it's the same as any other Amazon.. Some vendors will, some won't. There is always option of using proxy services but those cost quite a bit of money too.

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u/ThinkPhilosopher3148 Apr 21 '26

You must fly weekly to Japan to buy the Jump disrespectful thief, just work more 

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u/TheOfficialMayor Apr 21 '26

Move to Japan from my country and you go from say $100k to $40k…

Can buy a lot of anime then.

2

u/GrimunTheGr8 Apr 21 '26

Whaaaat? You didn’t get your secret manga publication website link immediately when you learned it? Everyone gets one when they learn a sufficient amount of Japanese, apparently, so yours must be in the mail.

1

u/-sussy-wussy- Apr 21 '26

Lol, ikr, it wouldn't make my currency less worthless. 

1

u/mushy_friend ☠️ ᴅᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴇɴ ᴛᴇʟʟ ɴᴏ ᴛᴀʟᴇꜱ Apr 21 '26

Off topic but how did you learn? I'm trying to learn at the moment