Do we carry out a drastic reform of the Copyright Act?

I presided over the “Building the Next Generation Intellectual Property System” symposium.

The Next Generation Intellectual Property System Committee held at the government had three pillars.

1) A flexible copyright system

2) A response to new information goods by AI and others

3) A response to cross-border copyright violations

The result was reflected in the Intellectual Property Strategic Program.

We began the symposium with a discussion on a flexible copyright system. We discussed what course of action should be taken for the initiative dealing with the gradation of a restrictions systems, centralized management, a ruling system, and the right to request monetary remuneration. Experts compared systems used in the United States and Europe while debating the laws. These discussions are also being held by the council of the Agency of Cultural Affairs, where they are in the process of making it into legislature.

Personally, I am more concerned with the Intellectual Property Strategic Program’s promise to “construct a set of guidelines.” The laws concerning these matters are vague, causing a risk for companies because the interpretations and applications of these laws is unpredictable. That is why we should include these interpretations into the new guidelines. The government, scholars, judges, companies, lawyers, or other related parties can work on the agreed interpretations.

The importance of archives was also pointed out. While the United States is competing ruthlessly over orphan works, Japan should turn its attention towards archive strategies. We must substantially lower the costs involved in copyright processing.

Professor Kitsuregawa of the University of Tokyo mentioned that while the United States is shifting its power from traditional companies to IT companies, Japan remains stubbornly rigid. He urges for us to become a game-changing country. This is a problem for all genres, and not only copyrighting.

He also voiced his concern that the Copyright Act is too difficult to decipher, and that it should be rewritten for better comprehension. I agree. The problem here is the system for the next generation. We would like to start work on the drastic reform of the current Copyright Act, originally written in 1971, for the first time in 50 years.

Fukui, an attorney, mentioned that we have become a society where all citizens transmit information, and that the Copyright Act applies to us all now. For this reason, it should be slimmed down. Fukui also called for the change of the opt-in system to an opt-out system, forming a system that focuses on making copyrighted works useable.

Copyright system experts may never call for a drastic reform of the system. It is the duty of the Intellectual Property Headquarters to fearlessly make the need known and pave the way for others. I believe that now is the time for us to start working on it seriously.

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DiTT will become the engine to propel the digitization of education

OECD has published this year’s edition of their worldwide academic ability study “PISA.” One of the reasons that we established The Association of Digital Textbooks and Teaching (DiTT) is because Japan, which had ranked #1 and #2 for math and science back in 2000, has since fallen dramatically in the ranks. We are very pleased that Japan has regained its former position.

However, this year’s PISA identified a decrease in the reading comprehension of Japanese students. The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology responded with a statement citing the main cause as “the change from test questions and answers being written on paper to being done via computer.” If so, then the late adoption of the digitization of education has caused this drop in academic ability.

DiTT held an extraordinary general meeting yesterday. Chairman Hiroshi Komiyama gave the following address:

“In the United States, there is a wealth imbalance where 0.1% of people own 30% of the country’s wealth. Communism has been defeated, but capitalism is now showing its limits. Meanwhile, Japan’s aim has not been to maximize profits, but to ensure the welfare of all stakeholders. We are a good society.

However, we are “slow.” The world is leaving us behind. We need people with ideas to “take action.”  As we move from a government-lead system to autonomous decentralized coordinative system , we must be able to face the government as we move forward as well.

After my leaving my post as president of the University of Tokyo, I have declined over 10 job offers from the government in order to carry forward with my beliefs. I do not mind if my students consider me wrong, but being called a liar is one thing that I cannot endure. I will become independent and do what needs to be done, all while remaining true to myself.”

From the mention of digital textbooks in the Intellectual Property Strategic Program, the mention of the promotion of the digitization of education by the IT headquarters and other organizations, the government decision to provide one PC per student by 2020, the standardization of digital textbooks, the application of the radio use fee, and the new requirement for programming education in schools, we can see that DiTT’s proposals have become reality, and that we are the leaders in the field.

The company is setting about in earnest in regards to the business dealings of this field. We also teamed up with the heads of municipalities that had taken an advanced stance towards this issue, and also formed a bipartisan National Diet caucus. We believe that there have already been results in the Diet, government, municipalities, schools, and the industrial world.

However, Japan remains an underdeveloped country. It is no exaggeration that in this field, we are at the lowest level of all OECD member countries. Now that we have finally begun to tackle the issue, we must bring ourselves up to a higher level immediately. While the Diet and government work from their end, the private sector must also do its part. I feel that for the time being, the only engine that is “propelling” the digitization of education is DiTT.

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