CISAC delegation meets with Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs

Summary
Visual artists, Japanese visual art society JASPAR and CISAC encourage introduction of resale right in Japan
20170223 Agency For Cultural Affairs Commissioner Meeting
Photo ©: CISAC

Visual artists throughout the world received a boost this week as a delegation of visual artists joined CISAC and JASPAR in a lobbying meeting with Commissioner Ryohei Miyata of the Agency for Cultural Affairs of Japan on 23 February. The goal of this meeting was to encourage the Japanese government to introduce the resale right under Japanese law as well as receive Japanese support for a new international treaty, which is under discussion at World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO) Standing Committee on Copyright. This was the first in a series of events focused on supporting visual artists in Japan, which will include the Artists’ Resale Right Symposium 2017 and a workshop for visual artists on 25 February.

Japan represents one of the major art markets in the world that currently does not recognise this right. Adoption of this right would enable visual artists to benefit from a percentage of the price of their work when it is resold by an auction house, art gallery or art dealer in Japan and around the world. CISAC and JASPAR have been active in lobbying for this support in Japan, including in previously co-hosting a March 2016 resale right symposium.

The Commissioner, a renowned visual artist himself, had the opportunity to learn more about the right outside the country, how it works in practice and how artists throughout the world have benefited from it. Recent developments at WIPO, particularly that a dedicated full day to the resale right is to take place, were also detailed.