Summary of strategies by the Strategic Council on Intellectual Property

 The government's plans were decided at a meeting with the Strategic Council on Intellectual Property, which I chair. The following are my overall comments. ------------------  Various policies regarding content were worked out, such as the establishment of funds and amendments to the Copyright Act, but it remains to be seen what the results are from now on. This year, discussions were made about domestic footing and overseas expansion, which form the 2 main pillars of the maintenance of digital networks and the strengthening of soft...

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Summary of strategies by the Strategic Council on Intellectual Property

 The government's plans were decided at a meeting with the Strategic Council on Intellectual Property, which I chair. The following are my overall comments. ------------------  Various policies regarding content were worked out, such as the establishment of funds and amendments to the Copyright Act, but it remains to be seen what the results are from now on. This year, discussions were made about domestic footing and overseas expansion, which form the 2 main pillars of the maintenance of digital networks and the strengthening of soft...

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The Music Task Force and databases

 The Music Task Force is a task force commissioned under the Strategic Council on Intellectual Property, and is involved in the international expansion of the Japanese music industry. It is the first effort in studying policies with a focus on music. In the midst of the important subject of advancing the overseas expansion of content, it was established for specific discussions, with the music industry as a model case.  Why music now? The government explains that the high prevalence of overseas expansion in music, coupled with the...

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Can Japan be a major archival nation?

 The government's Strategic Council on Intellectual Property has established an "Archive Task Force", and as its chairman, I have consolidated strategies for the propagation of digital property. When one mentions archives, many things come to mind. Cultural properties, publications, and television programs. Games, animated shows, comics, and music. A multitude of different things exist ranging from public property to commercial property. This is the government's initial foray into considering all these things as a whole in an archival strategy. ...

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Discussing the Content Policy with Lawmakers

I was called to a content committee meeting with members of the diet to debate pop culture and Cool Japan. Here are the answers that I gave. Q. How do you view the competitive power of Korea? A. Korea’s strategy is clear. Since the administration of Kim Dae-jung, 1) Their strategy fuses content and home electronics, software and hardware. 2) Their strategy concentrates on the international marketplace. 3) Their strategy involves intense government support. Japan has a lot to learn from their strategy. Q. What should we do to enter foreign...

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A debate on the future

 I was employed as director of the Japan branch of the international society of Research and Information on Public and Co-operative Economy, which is based on the Keio University Hiyoshi Campus. The main office is in Belgium. The theme is “ICT (Information and Communications Technology) in 2045.” Many people have imagined what the future of our information society will look like. Many wild fancies have emerged about the High-Level Information Age, New Media Initiatives, Multimedia, Gigabit Societies, etc. Many of these things actually...

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The future of digital

 This is the continuation of the presentation that I gave at the meeting on future policies in intellectual property.  Professor Negroponte advocated bits over atoms and virtual over real, and that change has come about. A world beyond that is here. The trend is toward intelligence, wearable, and ubiquitous. Another way of putting it is, “Clever, always, everything.” 1)    Intelligence: (Clever) Media creates content automatically without your interference. It acts as your autonomous agent, expressing and creating...

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Content up to the present

  I was asked to give a small presentation on the history of content to a meeting that was considering new policies for IP assets.  The first musical instrument was made from the femur of a badger 43,000 years ago in Slovenia. It all starts with music. Next we had Altamira 18,500 years ago, and Lascaux 15,000 years ago. At the time, people thought and expressed themselves with images. Letters weren’t invented until around 7000 B.C. So content developed from music to pictures to letters, and was limited to concerts or cave walls;...

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Want to visit a cool and pop country?

 Would you like to study in Japan? I took part in a PR event put on by Japanese universities geared toward UK students and talked about pop culture.  In 2020, Tokyo will host the Olympics. Who should be at the opening ceremony? Toyota? Honda? Sony? That might work out, but they aren’t people. There aren’t any famous politicians. However, we could have Gundam, Son Goku, Pikachu, DeathNote, or Bleach. Japan is a country of pop culture. My first trip overseas was to London in 1981. It was scary, and full of punks and motorcycle gangs....

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Impressions of “TV is a Condition”

The chairman of the television union, Yutaka Shigenobu, published “Television is a Condition.” It’s a digital publication about the history and culture of television, and a theory of management.  He showed recognition that the liberated “broadcast era” shifted to the “industrialized era” of the 80s, and accurately portrays how he fought against the “structured” era. It seems like quite a fight.  The behind-the-scenes stories are interesting. Mr. Shigenobu invited the director of a movie about the Berlin Olympics, Leni Riefenstahl,...

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