Moral rights in Japan - 'moral rights' of juridical persons?
Tatsuhiro Ueno · Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks · 2023
The Japanese Copyright Act basically adheres to the droit d’auteur-system and provides for three moral rights (the right to make the work public, the right of paternity and the right of integrity). However, moral rights shall be vested in not only natural persons as human creators but also juridical persons under the Japanese Copyright Act, since the authorship of a work can be attributed to juridical persons under the Japanese work-for-hire system. Interestingly enough, there are many court cases in Japan where the Court upheld the claim for injunction and awarded damages for infringement of juridical persons’ moral rights to compensate for the “non-economic” loss. The purpose of this chapter is to introduce the unique “moral rights” in Japan and to consider the justification.