Kyoto Police Arrest First Nyaa “Seeder” Over Japanese Copyright Violations
Japan’s Kyoto Prefecture Cyber Investigation Division has arrested a man from Sagamihara City over alleged copyright violations tied to Nyaa, one of the world’s best-known torrent sites for Japanese content—marking what authorities describe as the first documented case of a “first uploader” (or seeder) being taken into custody.
First seeder arrest linked to NHK “Midnight Taxi”
On July 28, 2026, investigators arrested the suspect for allegedly posting the torrent file for the 2026 television series NHK Midnight Taxi on Nyaa, making it available to an unspecified number of users. Prosecutors also suspect the same individual served as a first uploader for multiple other NHK-covered TV dramas, with the core allegation being that he was the original source of the torrent chain rather than someone who merely re-shared material already circulating.
In torrent ecosystems like Nyaa, the site itself provides torrent files rather than directly hosting the copyrighted media. Those torrent files point peers to each other through P2P file sharing, and that technical design has historically made it harder to identify who initially made a full copy available to the network. The “first uploader” is therefore treated as the key origin point: once that person seeds the complete file, other users can download from them before sharing further.
Why this case is considered a legal turning point
Until now, Japanese enforcement actions involving Nyaa had largely focused on “secondary uploaders”—people who share torrents or links for content that was already present on the platform. Reaching the origin seeder is described as a qualitatively different step with greater legal significance.
This is not the first Nyaa-related arrest connected to Kyoto. In 2025, the same Kyoto Prefecture Cyber Investigation Division arrested three people accused of sharing Nyaa torrent links containing episodes of Re:Zero – Starting Life in Another World Season 3, Kowloon Generic Romance, and Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX. The new case expands the pattern from secondary redistribution toward alleged first distribution.
- Arrest date: July 28, 2026
- Suspect location: Sagamihara City
- Target title cited: NHK Midnight Taxi (2026)
- Alleged role: first uploader / seeder
How investigators tracked him—and what’s next
Kyoto’s case was enabled through the Cross-Border Enforcement Project, a CODA-led initiative targeting cross-border piracy enforcement with support from Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry starting in fiscal year 2021. In this instance, investigators used forensic tools developed by the Japan Hacker Association.
CODA previously worked with Google in 2019 to remove Nyaa’s homepage from search results, but the site continued operating and reportedly averaged around 30 million visits per month over the past year, with approximately 50% of that traffic coming from Japan.
Nyaa has long been viewed as a major piracy hub for anime and Japanese media worldwide, with large amounts of content uploaded daily—often shared shortly after broadcasts or official streaming. The broader enforcement push in Japan has intensified this year, including closures tied to pirate streaming sites such as Hi-Anime, alongside earlier takedowns involving other popular sites like AnimeKai and AniGo. With major operators reportedly removed, CODA and Japanese authorities appear to be shifting attention toward Nyaa, aiming for further actions against other first-level uploaders and hoping deterrence will ripple across the wider piracy ecosystem.
