Nyaa Faces Landmark Crackdown
Nyaa, the world’s largest anime torrent site, has become the target of piracy watchdogs following the arrest of a first uploader (seeder) who shared a copyrighted work on the platform.
Per the Content Overseas Distribution Association (CODA), the Cyber Investigation Division of the Kyoto Prefectural Police and the Fushimi Police Station arrested a man residing in Sagamihara City on July 28, 2026. The individual is accused of uploading the NHK television drama Midnight Taxi on Nyaa this year by posting a torrent file and distributing the data to users through a peer-to-peer (P2P) network.
Nyaa Identified as Major Source of Anime Piracy
Authorities have earmarked Nyaa as a major source of online copyright infringement for a long time and taken measures against it. This includes a 2019 collaboration with Google to remove the site’s homepage from the platform’s search results.
Despite these measures, the site has continued to thrive, attracting approximately 30 million monthly visits on average in the last 12-month period. Roughly 50% of this traffic originated from Japan itself.
In recent times, however, legal actions against illegal anime streamers and their operators have intensified, with a large chunk of the current piracy ecosystem dismantled this year alone. This includes the shutdown of Hi-Anime, formerly the largest anime piracy streaming website, and the arrest of its operators.
The Future of Anime Piracy
With major players out of the picture, CODA and other agencies will likely shift their attention to Nyaa in a bid to curb the copyright infringement that has reportedly bled the anime industry dry for years.
// Comments