Download (or torrent) in Japan is illegal?

Hi guys!

I’m moving to Japan (Gifu-shi) next week and I have a doubt.
Is it safe download anime, manga, movies, etc in Japan using torrent or even direct download ? Anyone knows?
I’ve read that some people was arrested because they’re downloading and uploading some copyrights files.
I don’t want to upload anything… But I want to download some movies, series, and even animes (when I didn’t watch ir on TV).

Thanks.

Anyone who lives or lived in Japan can help me? Thanks!

I’ve lived in Japan for a short while (3 month). Well, more of a company training course.
The internet there is blazing fast compared to my country, I am really glad. But I heard that the
subscription is kinda hassle and costly. But since I didn’t have to pay for anything so I didn’t really care.

I have no problem accessing all of the site that I used to visit back at home. This includes all the streaming sites, torrents sites, porn and sankaku channel. I also have no problem downloading via torrents (of anime and english movies)

Downloading and uploading that stuff is illegal, but people do it anyway even in Japan. The whole world even. I don’t think you’ll get caught just by downloading an anime. All those anime and even gaki videos are captured in japan and uploaded from there. Even japanese download those english fansub anime videos.

To be safe, try to stay in international sites (english) for uploading (and downloading) stuff.

Maybe pay for a proxy service to remain anonymous?

Last time I heard they are very strict about it, so you can get in trouble for it as far as I know. That is why you don’t hear about it in Japan that much. I’d say use proxy just to be sure.