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Paper short abstract

This paper revisits scanlation—fan-made manga translation—through the lens of cultural commons. Tracing changes in manga translation and its associated milieus since the 2010s, it highlights the challenges industry- and institution-led efforts face in promoting manga translation globally.

Paper long abstract

Fan-generated manga translations, or so-called scanlations, have long been regarded as one of the key drivers of manga’s global circulation, cultivating transnational readerships and informal infrastructures of access. From the 2010s onwards, however, the growth of overseas markets and the expansion of the e-book market have increasingly reframed scanlation as ‘piracy’ to be policed and eradicated, and as a practice that has already ‘done its job’ and should now disappear.

In parallel, this period has seen a series of industry attempts to scale up official translation, from simultaneous releases to the proliferation of platform-based translation programmes. Most recently, the introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) into manga translation and the rise of manga translation business that utilises machine translation have substantially increased the volume and speed of multilingual releases. At the same time, however, such endeavours have provoked widespread criticism on online platforms concerning the ethics of translation and automation, revealing new tensions around labour, expertise, and value.

In light of these developments, the paper revisits scanlation through the lens of cultural commons, with a particular focus on manga translation into English. It analyses how the nature of fan translation practices and the socio-technical milieus in which they are situated have shaped scanlation’s roles in mediating access, enriching the translation landscape, and negotiating legitimacy and cultural value. The analysis also draws on textual examples, policy documents, and industry discourses to uncover the changing articulations of ‘piracy’, modes of creativity, and participation.

The paper then compares these historical configurations with those surrounding contemporary official manga translation after the intensified policing of scanlation as piracy. By juxtaposing fan-based, commons-like environments with more institutionalised, policy-driven regimes of translation, including initiatives led by Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs and others, it elucidates both the challenges and the possibilities of current efforts to promote manga translation internationally. In doing so, it asks what is lost, reconfigured, or newly imagined when manga translation moves from informally governed cultural commons to more tightly managed and partially automated infrastructures.