CATDOLL: Will the fandom community start reporting each other after the implementation of TPP? Internal strife is inevitable

The TPP negotiations between Japan and the United States have not yet reached an agreement. The issue of non-personal prosecution of copyright is of greatest concern to Japanese otakus. However, sometimes the biggest enemy is not an agreement but one's own people. Why is that? Japanese Senator Taro Yamada, who once pushed for the amendment of Japan's Child Protection Law to exclude the two-dimensional world from the scope of review, is worried that after the signing of the TPP agreement, the Japanese otaku community will fall into a civil war in which both sides will perish.

The biggest conflict between the copyright requirements in the US-led TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement) and the current laws in Japan is the "non-personal prosecution crime". The TPP agreement requires that the police and prosecutors of the signatory countries can intervene in the investigation when copyright infringement is discovered without the copyright owner filing a complaint. However, the current copyright protection laws in Japan require that the copyright owner must file a complaint before the public security, procuratorial and judicial organs can intervene in the investigation. Congressman Taro Yamada is worried that "once Japan and the United States sign the TPP agreement, it will affect the holding of Comiket and even make it impossible to hold it. The non-personal prosecution criminalization will plunge the Japanese fan community into a crazy civil war. Competing clubs and artists will report each other, the Japanese fan market will shrink, and even COSPLAY will be affected."

A Japanese lawyer, Kensaku Fukui, even said that TPP sounded the alarm for the destruction of Japan's otaku culture. Any COSPLAY or music cover performance without official authorization could suffer a devastating blow, and the Cool Japan strategy led by Shinzo Abe would also be greatly impacted.