>>53061399Over half of all pokeshippers aren't even consciously shippers just people who assumed Misty was the love interest because they watched the 4kids dub as kids.
So technically speaking an overwhelming number of people from the western hemisphere are probably not aware that it is an internet ship and not an official romance, and a smaller portion of those people may or may not think misty and ash are a 100% deal as they discuss shipping online.
In other words, there are more people in the west than there are in japan and only a small number of those people even watch pokemon in japanese,
Combine that with the fact that the indian dub of pokemon is based on the english dub, a superjmajority of people probably simply take for granted that ash and misty are dating without a second thought.
It's not like they consciously ship and theorize it, it's something they figure. Like Daphne and Fred in the early days.