Sixteen copyright related organisations in Japan last week called on their government to extend the copyright periods in their country to bring them in line with the length of copyrights elsewhere in the world. Among those organisations calling for the changes were the Recording Industry Association Of Japan and the Music Publishers Association Of Japan.
The copyright on original material in Japan is currently life of the author plus fifty years - but copyright owners want that to be increased to 70 years, bringing the country's copyright law inline with the US and Europe (including the UK, of course). Copyright on recorded material is currently 50 years after release, which the lobbying organisations want to see also increased to 70 years (it is currently 95 years in the US, though here in the UK it is also still 50 years, though, as previously reported, the record labels are currently proactively lobbying for an increase here too).
Commenting on their call for extensions in Japanese copyright law, Masahiro Mita of the country's Writer's Association told reporters: "We want the situation in Japan to be line with the global norm", adding that the discrepancy between Japan and other territories would make the country a base for global content piracy.