Japan ‘Lacks Legal Know-how’

A government panel of intellectual property experts on January 22nd released the findings of a study that said Japan lacks legal know-how in the entertainment field.

As a result, the country is unable to fully promote entertainment content abroad. In particular, Japan suffers from a shortage of lawyers versed in international copyright laws.

The panel proposed exchanges between Japanese legal experts and foreign lawyers who specialize in intellectual property rights. It also called for revising the Copyright Law to allow consumers to enjoy Japanese content more freely over the Internet.

Japanese law makes it difficult for content providers to put their product on the Internet, either for free or for a fee, mainly because copyright holders are often difficult to identify. The panel suggested a more flexible legal definition of copyright holders.