Just a Coincidence? The Sense of Helplessness in “NO MORE Movie Thief” Exposed by a Demon Slayer Piracy Incident

Upskirt images discovered on seized smartphone

On August 23, at the Metropolitan Police Department’s Otsuka Station transfer gate, a young man appeared with an expression of surprise. Wide-eyed, he looked at the assembled press as though seeing something unusual.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Police arrested Korean exchange student Shim Jun-woo (24), a resident of Adachi Ward, on suspicion of violating copyright law by illegally recording the currently released film Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Infinity Castle Part 1 – The Return of Akaza. He allegedly used a smartphone to record the movie inside a theater in Shinjuku on July 18, thereby infringing on the copyright held by distributor Aniplex and others.

“Shim was already arrested in July for allegedly using a credit card in someone else’s name to purchase 200 anime Blu-ray discs from an online retailer. During the seizure of his smartphone, investigators found what appeared to be a full 2-hour 35-minute pirated video of Infinity Castle,” explained a national newspaper crime reporter.

Shim reportedly denies the allegations, saying, “I did not record the film.”

Infinity Castle, released on July 18, surpassed ¥10 billion in box office revenue in just eight days. By August 24, it had grossed over ¥28 billion, overtaking Titanic (1997, ¥27.7 billion) to rank third on Japan’s all-time box office list. As expected from such a blockbuster, incidents of piracy had already occurred: in May, a theater-exclusive teaser trailer was illegally recorded and uploaded online, prompting warnings on the official website.

After the film’s release, on July 25, the production again warned: “Unauthorized filming of the movie has been observed online. Such copyright infringement under the Motion Picture Anti-Piracy Law and Copyright Law may result in imprisonment of up to 10 years, fines of up to ¥10 million, or both.” They stated that strict legal action, including criminal prosecution, would be taken.

Damages have increased more than fivefold since 2019

In recent years, it has become common for anime films screened in Japan to be uploaded almost immediately onto pirate sites. According to estimates by the Content Overseas Distribution Association (CODA), losses to Japanese content from piracy in 2022 amounted to between ¥1.95 trillion and ¥2.202 trillion—over five times the amount in 2019. Of this, damages related to video content alone are estimated at ¥906.5 billion to ¥1.4297 trillion.

Back in the 2000s, illegally recording new films and then uploading or selling them as DVDs became a global problem, which eventually led to the enactment of the Film Anti-Piracy Law in 2007. At that time, according to the Japan International Motion Picture Copyright Association, losses from camcording in 2005 were ¥18 billion. While the methods of calculation differ and the figures aren’t directly comparable, the scale today is on a completely different order of magnitude.

Theaters, for their part, are not sitting idly by. The most well-known measure is the “NO MORE Eiga Dorobo (Movie Thief)” awareness campaign, featuring the man with a camera head and the patrol-light policeman, shown before every screening. Thanks in part to this, audience awareness has grown. When news of the Demon Slayer recording broke in July, many online comments read: “If I spot a violator, I’ll report them,” and “Recording in theaters? No way, absolutely not!”

“Depending on the theater, staff check the auditorium every few dozen minutes, entering from the back to scan the entire audience. This isn’t just for piracy, but to make sure nothing unusual is happening. Staff also monitor from the projection booth at regular intervals.

If someone is using a smartphone, the light is immediately noticeable, and staff will step in. Recently, theaters have also called on audiences not to use glowing devices like smartphones or smartwatches during screenings—not only for manners, but also to prevent piracy. On top of that, more customers themselves are reporting suspicious behavior. Surveillance has become much stricter, and filming an entire movie should now be extremely difficult” (entertainment magazine writer).

Shim’s recording was only discovered because he was arrested in connection with another case—it wasn’t that the act of recording itself was caught. Despite repeated warnings on the official Demon Slayer website, illegal recording of films continues unabated.