Japanese Government Policies in Education, Science, Sports and Culture 2000[Part 2 Chapter 8 Section 4 1]

In response to the diversification of forms of copyright use that have developed along with the trend towards an information-oriented society, the Agency for Cultural Affairs is promoting improvement of the copyright system based on the deliberations of the Copyright Council.

In December 1999, the Council completed deliberations on the three following topics, among other items: (1) Enforcement of copyright protection and penalties; (2) Review of regulations restricting rights related to the use of works by the disabled; (3) Extension of the term of copyright protection. In response, the 147^th session of the Diet passed the Law Partially Amending the Copyright Law and the Law Concerning the Exceptional Provisions to the Copyright Law Required in Consequence of the Enforcement of the Universal Copyright Convention.

In June 2000, deliberations were initiated on measures aimed at clarifying the legal responsibility of service providers concerning copyright infringement. Discussions regarding measures necessary to conclude the WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) Performances and Phonograms Treaty are also scheduled.

Along with the information technology (IT) revolution, distribution of music over networks and other forms of electronic commerce have developed rapidly, and the era of unrestricted distribution of copyrighted works across national borders is upon us. In response, in July 2000 the Copyright Council issued its report on the future of international copyright policy adapted to the development of IT and e-commerce.

Furthermore, in order to investigate modalities for centralized management of copyright in response to the diverse and large-scale exploitation of works that has occurred as a result of the advances in digitization and information networks, a comprehensive study of modalities for centralized management, focusing on a review of the system of intermediation (the business of rights management regarding the use of works in which the rights are entrusted by the copyright holder to the intermediary) while keeping in mind such aspects as effectiveness of rights protection and ease of use, was done, and a report was compiled and published in January 2000, the main points of which are:

(1) Regarding copyright management, the system in which the Director-General of the Agency for Cultural Affairs grants permission to enterprises which manage works in particular fields will be revised to a registration system for enterprises which manage general works, aimed at copyright, etc. (2) Regarding regulations for usage fees, the system of authorization by the Director-General of the Agency for Cultural Affairs will be revised to a notification system. (3) In order to prevent highly centralized copyright management enterprises from making use of their dominant position to implement high usage fees which would hinder the smooth use of works, negotiations involving copyright management enterprises and users' groups, as well as a conflict resolution system, will be established. (4) In order that copyright management is conducted appropriately, the obligations of copyright management enterprises and the supervisory jurisdiction of the relevant authorities will be stipulated.

Based on these issues, the Agency for Cultural Affairs is currently conducting work towards the establishment of the Copyright Management Law (provisional name).

The Conference on Issues Related to Copyright in the Audio-Visual Field is holding discussions on the following topics: (1) modalities for the protection of performances, etc., in the audio-visual field; (2) modalities for the protection of audio-visual works; and (3) measures to facilitate the use of audio and video. In 1999, it established the Group for the Study of Modalities Involving the Rights of Performers and the Group for the Study of Modalities Involving the Rights of Authors of Cinematographic Works, which are currently sorting out these issues.


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