Unification of Intellectual Property Policy

 The cabinet decided upon a basic direction for the creation of intellectual property policy for the first time. I’m glad to see that they have recognized the importance of an intellectual property policy. The important point regarding this policy is that it must involve “cooperation and integration.”

 First, there’s “Big Data.”

 This time, I’ll take a close look at big data in terms of the vision for intellectual property. How should we use publicly shared data? This is an important element of IP policy. On the other hand, this is also being debated by the IT strategy department. There needs to be cooperation, or even integration, between IP and IT policies.

 In order for the data from federal and local governments to be released to and used by the public, it needs to be free of copyright. Some of the possible approaches include amending the copyright act such that public data doesn’t have a copyright attached; the country abandoning the copyright; or the use of 2^nd generation licenses such as the Creative Commons license. However, to put any of these in place will require the power of the government.

 I am the director of the “Consortium on the Promotion and Distribution of Open Data.” The activity is attended by leaders from eight relevant government ministries and agencies, local government leaders, industry, and research facilities with the goal of information dissemination and case development. I want the government to heed our advice carefully.

  The same goes for the computerization of education.

  Our vision for IP involved the computerization of education, particularly through the use of digital textbooks. However, this requires that every child have a device and access to a cloud environment before it can be implemented. Before IP can be implemented in educational content, the digital environment must be in place, and that is a problem for IT. This is why the IT and IP policies must be integrated.

 Reform of the textbook system must be dealt with in the IP policy, and creation of the digital environment must be dealt with in the IT policy, and these will take many years to accomplish. The government has made clear plans, but there are hurdles to actual implementation. We require their dedication to this goal. When I lead the Digital textbooks & teaching Association we released a “Proposal for the Computerization of Education” that included a provision for digital textbooks and offered support for the 100 leading municipal governments and educators.

 With mid- and long-term challenges set, the government created the “Cool Japan Promotion Council” as a short-term policy. With manga, anime, and games at the core of pop culture, this also involved fashion, food, traditional crafts, sightseeing, and anything else that could display Japan’s economic and cultural “soft power.” In particular, our mission was to promote Japan in the international marketplace.

 To advance a policy like this requires the same order. It involves breaking the vertical segregation and putting all one’s effort into it. For example, the Cool Japan policy involved the eight sections of the government including cabinet; general affairs; arts; Health, Labor, and Welfare; Economy, Trade, and Industry; diplomatic relations; agricultural and fishery; and financial. These ministries got together at the same table to brainstorm and implement a plan, but this still doesn’t match the longstanding efforts of France or Korea in this area.

 What’s more, the Cool Japan policy is a short-term one. The IP policy is a mid-term policy that involves planning, diplomacy, and education. It will be important to change the vertical structure of the ministries and agencies to a horizontal one, and to carry out the horizontally segmented short- and mid-term policies in a synchronized manner.