Copyright Act

A designated compensation management organization must keep the accounts relating to compensation management functions separate from the accounts relating to its other functions and account for them as a special account.

A designated compensation management organization must, as specified by Order of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, prepare a business plan and a revenue and expenditure budget for each business year and obtain the approval of the Commissioner of the Agency for Cultural Affairs. The same applies if the designated compensation management organization seeks to change them.

When a designated compensation management organization has obtained the approval under the preceding paragraph, it must publish without delay the business plan and the revenue and expenditure budget.

A designated compensation management organization must, for each business year, as specified by Order of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, prepare a business report and a revenue and expenditure statement of accounts, and within three months after the end of that business year, submit them to the Commissioner of the Agency for Cultural Affairs and also make them public.

A designated compensation management organization must, as specified by Order of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, keep account books concerning compensation management functions, enter in them the matters specified by Order of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, and preserve them.

To the extent necessary to ensure the proper and reliable implementation of compensation management functions, the Commissioner of the Agency for Cultural Affairs may require a designated compensation management organization to make a necessary report or submit necessary data concerning compensation management functions, or may have the Commissioner's officials enter the offices or other necessary places of the designated compensation management organization, question persons concerning compensation management functions, or inspect account books, documents and other articles.

An official who conducts an on-site inspection under the preceding paragraph must carry an identification card and present it when requested to do so by a related person.

The authority to conduct on-site inspections under paragraph (1) must not be construed as being vested for criminal investigation.

If the Commissioner of the Agency for Cultural Affairs finds it necessary in order to ensure the proper and reliable implementation of compensation management functions, the Commissioner may issue to a designated compensation management organization any order required for supervision concerning compensation management functions.

A designated compensation management organization must not discontinue compensation management functions without the permission of the Commissioner of the Agency for Cultural Affairs.

When the Commissioner of the Agency for Cultural Affairs has given the permission under the preceding paragraph, the Commissioner is to give public notice to that effect in the Official Gazette.

A designation ceases to be effective on or after the day following the date of the public notice under the preceding paragraph.

The Commissioner of the Agency for Cultural Affairs is to rescind the designation of a designated compensation management organization if it falls under any of the following items:

it has obtained the designation by deceit or other wrongful means;

it has come to fall under either Article 104-19, paragraph (3), item (i) or item (iii).

The Commissioner of the Agency for Cultural Affairs may rescind the designation of a designated compensation management organization if it falls under any of the following items:

it is found to be unable to carry out compensation management functions properly and reliably;

it has violated Article 104-19, paragraph (5), Article 104-22, paragraph (1) or (2), Articles 104-25 through 104-27, or paragraph (1) of the preceding Article;

it has carried out compensation management functions otherwise than in accordance with the compensation management function rules approved under Article 104-23, paragraph (1);

it has violated an order under Article 104-23, paragraph (5), Article 104-24, paragraph (2) or Article 104-29;

it has failed to make the report or submit the data under Article 104-28, paragraph (1), or has made a false report or submitted false data, or has failed to answer or has given a false answer to a question under that paragraph, or has refused, obstructed or evaded an inspection under that paragraph.

When the Commissioner of the Agency for Cultural Affairs has rescinded a designation pursuant to the preceding two paragraphs, the Commissioner is to give public notice to that effect in the Official Gazette.

A designation ceases to be effective on or after the day following the date of the public notice of rescission under the preceding paragraph.

If the Commissioner of the Agency for Cultural Affairs, having given the permission referred to in Article 104-30, paragraph (1) or having rescinded a designation pursuant to paragraph (1) or (2) of the preceding Article, subsequently designates a new designated compensation management organization, the designated compensation management organization to which that permission or rescission relates must hand over its compensation management functions to the designated compensation management organization that has newly received designation.

Beyond what is provided for in the preceding paragraph, necessary transitional measures concerning compensation management functions (including transitional measures concerning penal provisions) in a case where permission has been given under Article 104-30, paragraph (1) or a designation has been rescinded pursuant to paragraph (1) or (2) of the preceding Article are provided by Cabinet Order, within the scope judged to be reasonably necessary.

The Commissioner of the Agency for Cultural Affairs may have a person that has received registration from the Commissioner (hereinafter in this Section referred to as a "registered verification body") carry out the following, out of the affairs pertaining to the compulsory license under the provisions of Article 67-3, paragraph (1) (including as applied mutatis mutandis pursuant to Article 103; the same applies hereinafter in this Section) and to the determination of the amount of compensation (hereinafter in this Section, Article 121-3 and Article 122-2, item (iii) referred to as "verification and other affairs"):

affairs pertaining to the acceptance of applications for that compulsory license (referred to as "acceptance of applications" in Article 104-35, paragraph (2));

affairs pertaining to verification of whether the work subject to the application for that compulsory license falls under an unmanaged work made public, etc. and whether the person who filed the application for that compulsory license falls under Article 67-3, paragraph (1), item (i) (hereinafter in this Article and Article 104-35, paragraph (2) referred to as "verification of requirements");

affairs pertaining to the calculation of the amount equivalent to the ordinary rate of royalties under Article 67-3, paragraph (1) (hereinafter in this Section referred to as "calculation of the royalty-equivalent amount").

When the Commissioner of the Agency for Cultural Affairs has a registered verification body carry out verification and other affairs pursuant to the preceding paragraph, the Commissioner is not to carry out verification and other affairs. In this case, the Commissioner must grant the compulsory license and determine the amount of compensation under Article 67-3, paragraph (1) taking into consideration the results of verification of requirements and calculation of the royalty-equivalent amount stated by the registered verification body in the document it sends pursuant to the following paragraph.

When a registered verification body has accepted an application for the compulsory license under Article 67-3, paragraph (1), it is to carry out verification of requirements and calculation of the royalty-equivalent amount, and, as specified by Order of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, attach to the written application for that compulsory license and its attached materials a document stating the results of that verification of requirements and calculation of the royalty-equivalent amount, and send them to the Commissioner of the Agency for Cultural Affairs.

The provisions of Article 71 (limited, in item (ii), to the part pertaining to Article 67-3, paragraph (1); including as applied mutatis mutandis pursuant to Article 103) do not apply to a case where the Commissioner of the Agency for Cultural Affairs determines the amount of compensation pursuant to the provisions of the second sentence of paragraph (2).

The registration referred to in paragraph (1) of the preceding Article (hereinafter in this Section referred to as "registration") is made upon the application of a person that intends to carry out verification and other affairs.

A person that seeks to receive registration must, as specified by Order of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, submit a written application stating the following particulars to the Commissioner of the Agency for Cultural Affairs:

the name and address of the person that seeks to receive registration (for a corporation, its name, the name of its representative and the location of its principal office);

other particulars specified by Order of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.

The Commissioner of the Agency for Cultural Affairs is to grant registration if the Commissioner finds that the application for registration conforms to all of the following items:

the persons engaged in verification and other affairs include one or more persons who have experience in the management of copyright and neighboring rights as specified by Order of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology;

the persons engaged in verification and other affairs include one or more persons who have the knowledge and experience necessary for calculation of the royalty-equivalent amount, as specified by Order of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology;

A person that falls under any of the following items cannot receive registration:

a person who has been sentenced to imprisonment or a heavier punishment, or sentenced to a fine under the provisions of this Act, and for whom two years have not elapsed since the day on which the person finished serving the sentence or ceased to be subject to its execution;

a person whose registration was rescinded pursuant to the provisions of Article 104-45, paragraph (1) or (2) and for whom two years have not elapsed since the date of the rescission (where the person whose registration was rescinded is a corporation, this includes a person who was an officer of that corporation within sixty days before the date of the notice under Article 15 of the Administrative Procedure Act pertaining to the disposition of rescission and for whom two years have not elapsed since the date of the rescission);

a corporation, any of whose officers fall under any of the preceding two items.

Registration is to be made by entering the matters set forth in paragraph (2), item (i) and other matters specified by Order of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in the register of registered verification bodies.

When the Commissioner of the Agency for Cultural Affairs has granted registration, the Commissioner is to give public notice of the matters prescribed in the preceding paragraph (excluding those specified by Order of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) in the Official Gazette.

When a registered verification body is to change any of the matters set forth in the items of paragraph (2), it must notify the Commissioner of the Agency for Cultural Affairs to that effect by two weeks before the change.

When the Commissioner of the Agency for Cultural Affairs has received a notification under the preceding paragraph with regard to the matters prescribed in paragraph (6), the Commissioner is to give public notice to that effect in the Official Gazette.