FEATURE: Japanese pop culture going global thanks to fans' efforts: study+

LONDON, Feb. 26 Kyodo -
Manga and anime are being brought to a wider audience by fans who are
distributing their own translations and performances on the Internet, according
to new research by a British academic.
Lee Hye-Kyung of the University of London said the process shows the new ways
in which Japanese popular culture is being disseminated in the age of
globalization.
But she believes there is a potential for conflict in the future if Japanese
publishers decide to take legal action against unauthorized translations
distributed by fans based in the United States and Europe.
Lee, who has just finished researching the phenomenon known as ''scanlation,''
in which Japanese manga is translated into other languages by fans, presented
her findings at a recent seminar in London on the globalization of Japanese
brands.
She also found that overseas devotees of Japanese animation, or anime for
short, are also translating the movies and producing subtitles for distribution
over the Internet. And the same process can also be seen with popular Japanese
literature.
The first step in scanlation involves a manga fan getting hold of the latest
comics from Japan. The fan scans the pages and sends the images via e-mail to a
translator. The translated work is then sent to a proofreader before a
''cleaner'' removes the original Japanese from the speech bubbles and inserts
the translation.
The translated version is sometimes sent to a quality controller who examines
it before release on websites, from where it can be downloaded for free.
Lee said there are probably in excess of 1,000 scanlation groups worldwide with
many based in the United States, where the practice originated in the late
1990s.
She said scanlation represents a different kind of relationship between
publishers and those copying their work.
Whereas the music industry has clamped down hard on illegal file-sharers, the
manga industry has not yet taken any legal action.
Lee said she had spoken to one Japanese publishing house that was not
particularly happy about the unauthorized translations, but the industry has
yet to engage in coordinated action, with many publishers seeing scanlation as
an overseas phenomenon.
Lee believes disputes could arise in the future and some believe they could be
triggered if the manga market becomes more lucrative overseas. It currently
attracts a relatively modest audience in comparison with other media.
But the lack of legal threats could have something to do with the way in which
the majority of scanlators operate, as Lee discovered in her research.
For example, scanlators will try whenever possible to buy a copy of the
original work and, if and when the Japanese original is translated, they will
generally stop scanlating that particular work.
However, Lee did find during her investigation that some scanlators continue to
translate a comic series even though they are aware that the work will be
published in English in the future. This was the case with the ''Naruto''
martial arts fantasy comic series, when fans were impatient for the official
translation.
Lee told the recent conference organized by the Great Britain Sasakawa
Foundation that many scanlators possess a ''missionary zeal'' to share manga on
a nonprofit basis. The motivating factor for many scanlators is to try to
encourage publishers outside of Japan to license work and translate it into
European languages.
Scanlators possess a great ''sense of ownership'' in relation to their work.
''I think scanlation is a very interesting phenomenon and challenges our
existing perceptions of copyright and industry relations,'' she said.
Manga historian Paul Gravett agreed.
''Scanlations are driven almost entirely by the enthusiasm and passion of fans
and readers/viewers, with no malice or thought of profit, only at worst a
frustration at the sometimes long delays getting Japanese material into their
language,'' Gravett told Kyodo News.
Another possible development could be the commercialization of scanlation
sites, which are currently free to users, by big companies hoping to profit on
the popularity of the genre in Europe.
Manga are Japanese comic books and the word literally means ''random
pictures.'' Their style has been influenced by Japanese ''ukiyo-e'' woodblock
prints and Western drawing styles.
Lee also found that there is more home-grown manga in Europe now, which
obviously features fewer Japanese characters and settings.
==Kyodo
2009-02-26 22:29:51