Author Information
Rattanun Jariyavilaskul, Bangkok University, ThailandAbstract
Despite being praised by global fans and acclaimed on international stages, Japanese media are still constantly victims of copyright infringement, as most Japanese studios lack expertise in international distribution. Such problems led to the “Fan-Subtitle” movement, in which fans translate content and distribute it illegally on video-sharing platforms without the original creator’s approval. This study examined Thai Fan-subtitle creators of Japanese drama. The Grounded Theory was adopted to explore and comprehend the phenomenon of Fan-Subtitling. This study also involved stakeholders by conducting In-depth interviews with 10 Thai fan-subtitle creators and three official copyright holders to identify fan-subtitle creators’ opinions, and the studio’s challenges in overseas distribution. Initial findings revealed that 1) Fan-subtitling is a global phenomenon that emerged from latent demand, the significant trait is that fan-subtitling can be considered as “Prosumption”. 2) Comparing with past studies, the practice of Fan-subtitling is similar to the past decades, but more digitalized due to the technology advancement, and 3) Japanese studios encounter 4 major challenges in reaching global markets, including the cultural differences and resource limitations in working with platform providers. This study also discusses the implications of the fan-subtitle mechanism, whether it has the potential to develop into business practices, and its application to other industries to encourage Japanese creatives to export their works globally, and mitigate the damage from copyright infringement.
Paper Information
Conference: MediAsia2025Stream: Films and Digital Distribution (use of the internet and video sharing)
This paper is part of the MediAsia2025 Conference Proceedings (View)
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To cite this article:
Jariyavilaskul R. (2026) From Fans to Unofficial Translators: Exploring Thai Fan-Subtitle Creators in Japanese Drama in the Digital Age ISSN: 2186-5906 – The Asian Conference on Media, Communication & Film 2025: Official Conference Proceedings (pp. 25-39) https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2186-5906.2025.3
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2186-5906.2025.3
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