English-language publisher Viz Media serialized Jaco simultaneously in their digital Weekly Shonen Jump as it ran in Japan and released the single volume in North America in 2015.

During a trip to the capital for supplies, Jaco saves a young woman from thugs, but also unknowingly attacks the police, becoming a wanted man.

The woman, Tights, decides to join Jaco and Omori on the island and buys a small amount of the expensive metal with the money she was given for agreeing to act as a body double for a pop star in an upcoming dangerous rocket launch publicity stunt.

Thinking to use parts of the ship in order to make the money needed for fuel, the trio call over Tights' father who happens to be Dr. Briefs, a scientific genius and richest man in the world.

But it is his younger daughter, Bulma, who fixes the antennae and informs everyone that the expensive metal is not the ship's power source but is only used to store energy, while the similar and much cheaper copper would do the same job.

Years later, Katayude has moved to the island as well, Tights has become a science fiction writer, Jaco has found a girlfriend and occasionally visits, and Bulma stops by, having just started out on a journey to gather seven wish-granting balls.

He revealed that he began planning the manga a year earlier and that it was originally set to be serialized during the release of Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods, but working on two hours of sleep a night exhausted him and he fell four months behind.

[4] Written and illustrated by Akira Toriyama, Jaco the Galactic Patrolman was serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump from issue #33 on July 29 to #44 on October 14, 2013 in celebration of the magazine's 45th anniversary.

[7][8] Both versions contain a bonus story focusing on Dragon Ball that unveils Goku's mother, while the kanzenban alone includes a postcard, a key ring and a Galactic Patrol badge.

[11] Viz Media began serializing Jaco the Galactic Patrolman in English in their digital Weekly Shonen Jump magazine just two days after its debut in Japan.

[13][14] In January 2014, the first two chapters of Jaco the Galactic Patrolman received a four-part "Vomic" adaptation for the television show Sakiyomi Jum-Bang!.

[20] Otaku USA's Joseph Luster called Jaco a light and fun standalone manga with the "special type of humor and joy that only Toriyama can muster."