Copyright registration in Japan. Japan is an island country in East Asia, located in the northwest Pacific Ocean. Japan is the third-largest national economy in the world, after the United States and China, in terms of nominal GDP, and the fourth largest national economy in the world, after the United States, China, and India, in terms of purchasing power parity as of 2019. The Japanese variant of capitalism has many distinct features: keiretsu enterprises are influential, and lifetime employment and seniority-based career advancement are common in the Japanese work environment. Japan has a large cooperative sector, with three of the ten largest cooperatives in the world. Accordingly, many businesses want to enter this market and one of the most important preparations a business needs to take before expanding to Japan is to learn the procedure of copyright registration in Japan.
Copyright in Japan
Unlike other intellectual property rights such as trademarks, patents, industrial designs, plant varieties, etc., copyright does not need to be registered for protection but will be automatically protected from the time the works are created.
The creation must be visible in a certain material form, like content, quality, form, medium, language, published or unpublished, registered or unregistered.
Accordingly, whether registered or not, the copyright to the work will still be protected. However, the creator should still apply for copyright registration in Japan early because early registration will give the author/owner of the work many advantages in the event of a dispute.
When unauthorized use of work occurs around the world, the owner of a work who has made a copyright registration in Japan will not have to waste time and complicate matters with proving himself/herself to be the legitimate owner of the work.
Thereby, in order to avoid passivity, the owner of the work should make a copyright registration in Japan immediately to protect their rights and interests when there is an infringement.
Copyright registration in Japan
Japan is a member country of The Berne Convention for Copyright since 1899.
The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (the Berne Convention) is an international agreement governing copyright. The agreement was first accepted in Berne, Switzerland, in 1886.
As Japan is a contracting party of the Berne Convention, any work originating in Japan will be given copyright protection in each of the Berne Convention member countries.
In most countries, copyright protection is automatic as soon as the work existed in material form. However, the copyright registration in Japan is critical in order for the copyright owner to obtain evidence of copyright.
Evidence of copyright is extremely important even when the works are automatically protected according to copyright law.
When registering, the work will get an application submission date, as well as information about the creation and proof of creative concept and development. This provides unambiguous proof of authorship and ownership that can’t be denied.
Proof of copyright is essential in an age when the publishing, dissemination, and theft of material is extremely easy with the exposure of the Internet.
If copyright registration is not made, copyright owners will lose a big amount of money as well as time attempting to fight copyright issues and prove ownership of the original work.
If the copyright owner has already registered for copyright protection to the IP office, they would have a strong legal foundation which would increase their chance of winning against the violating parties.
Documents for copyright registration in Japan
To obtain copyright registration in Japan, the author of the work needs to prepare the following documents:
- Declaration of copyright registration in Japan;
- Two copies of copyrighted work;
- Documents proving the right to apply;
- Written consent of co-authors, if the work has co-authors;
- Written consent of the co-owners, if the copyright is jointly owned;
- Notarized identity card of the author or owner of the work;
- Power of Attorney, if the applicant is an authorized person;
- Notarized copy of the company’s business registration certificate (if the owner is a company).
The copyright law of Japan
Japanese copyright law protects all works “in which thoughts or sentiments are expressed in a creative way, and which falls within the literary, scientific, artistic or musical domain.” The laws automatically provide the following rights, without the need for formal declaration or registration:
Moral rights
- Divulgence: The author can choose when and how a work will be made available to the public.
- Authorship: The author can choose how their authorship is represented in the work (e.g., under pseudonym or anonymity).
- Integrity: The author can control the modification of a work.
“Moral rights” (人格権 jinkaku-ken) are non-transferable; they remain with the author until they expire. Although moral rights themselves cannot be waived, the exercise of moral rights is waived by contract.
Economic rights
- Reproduction: The author can control the reproduction of a work, including photography, recording, and downloading.
- Communication: The author can control how a work is to be transmitted, communicated, broadcast, performed, exhibited, etc., including how copies of the work are to be distributed.
- Adaptation: The author can control the adaptation of a work through translation, dramatization, cinematization, and the creation of derivative works in general.
Unlike moral rights, economic rights can be freely transferred or relinquished. If the author transfers their economic rights to another, the holder of the economic rights becomes the “copyright holder”, but the author retains authorship.
You can see a list of Japan IP firms here.