It removes a limitation in Japanese copyright law that has long been criticised by the global record industry, and which meant foreign as well as Japanese rightsholders and performers received no payments when their recordings were played in public within Japan.
According to Laurence Oxenbury, Director Of International at UK record industry collecting society PPL, the change “is an important development for both the domestic Japanese market and the wider international music industry”.
Plus, “recognising public performance rights in sound recordings brings Japan into line with the broader global framework that underpins fair remuneration for performers and recording rightsholders”.
Both the UK and European Union included commitments around public performance rights for sound recordings in their respective trade deals with Japan, and record industry groups around the world have played their role in helping the Japanese industry lobby for those rights, including PPL.
Oxenbury tells CMU, “PPL has engaged closely with Japanese stakeholders for a number of years, including ongoing dialogue with delegations in both the UK and Tokyo, to share our experience of public performance licensing and the value it delivers for music creators. We look forward to continuing to support partners in Japan as this new copyright law comes into practice”.
Copyright law gives copyright owners control over how their work is used by third parties in a number of different ways, including control over reproduction and distribution of the work. If any third party wants to reproduce or distribute someone else’s work they must first seek permission from the copyright owner, who will usually charge for that permission. Which is how copyright makes money.
In most countries, rightsholders also have control over the broadcast (or ‘communication’) and performance of their work and - with sound recordings - this is where performers usually have a right to payment in law even if they are not the copyright owner. These specific rights and revenues are usually managed on behalf of labels and artists by collecting societies like PPL.
However, in a small number of countries, not all the controls apply to the recording. Famously, in the US, sound recording copyright owners do not have control over the broadcast or performance of their works.
That means neither labels nor artists earn any royalties from AM/FM radio - or pubs, clubs, cafes and shops - even when those businesses make use of their music. There’s been a decades long campaign to change US law in this respect, so far without success.
In Japan, broadcasters were already required to pay royalties to artists and labels, but there was no public performance right, meaning pubs, clubs, cafes and shops did not have to make any payments. They did need to pay royalties to songwriters and publishers in relation to the separate song copyright, but not to artists and labels in relation to the recording copyright.
But that will now change. The Japanese government approved these changes to the country’s copyright laws last month and, according to Kyodo News, the amendments were passed by Japan’s parliament yesterday. Which means just the Emperor now needs to formally sign the amendments into law.
The aim is to have the new public performance right fully operational within the next three years.