"Unlike most other countries, filesharing copyrighted content is not just a civil offense, but a criminal one, with penalties of up to ten years for uploading and penalties of up to two years for downloading."
"There is also a high level of Internet service provider cooperation."
Don’t get your hopes up, because the article is a complete lie. If you look at the original Japanese source, the minister was just reaffirming the current legal status. Neither politicians mentioned in the article expressed any hint of endorsement. The fact that they were even discussing copyright and AI likely means that more regulation is upcoming.
They recently imprisoned someone for uploading a let's play of a visual novel to youtube. The bar for criminal copyright infringement in Japan is very low - unless you're an AI researcher, apparently.
So it's kind of disgusting to see this relaxation, when it suits some corporate or national interests.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_sharing_in_Japan
"Unlike most other countries, filesharing copyrighted content is not just a civil offense, but a criminal one, with penalties of up to ten years for uploading and penalties of up to two years for downloading."
"There is also a high level of Internet service provider cooperation."