Japan Panel Fails to Agree on Blocking of Pirate Websites

October 16, 2018

Tokyo- A Japanese Cabinet Office panel has failed to agree on whether to legislate the blocking of access to pirate websites by Internet service providers, with member experts sharply divided over the forcible measure against such sites, mainly on manga and anime.

At the panel's meeting on Monday, the government agency presented a draft of an interim summary showing opinions both for and against the legal action, but the draft was rejected by members opposing the move.

With the day's discussions going nowhere, the panel, co-chaired by Ichiya Nakamura and Jun Murai, both professors at Keio University, was unable to set a schedule for its next meeting.

While the Cabinet Office and publishers are in favor of the forcible website blocking in order to protect the copyrights of manga and anime works, the telecommunications industry and lawyers strongly oppose the measure on the grounds that it may violate the privacy of communication guaranteed under Japan's constitution.

The Cabinet Office had aimed to reach some kind of consensus at Monday's meeting, but to no avail.

After the camp opposing the website blocking resisted to the proposed interim summary, the co-chairs proposed the compilation of a report that includes the course of the panel's discussions.

But the opponents even rejected this, claiming that it would eventually lead to the forcible blocking being legislated.

Members agreed to allow the co-chairs to decide what the panel will do from now.

Even if members end up failing to reach an agreement, it would be important for the panel to recognize the fact, Nakamura told reporters, indicating the chairs' intention to come up with some kind of report. Jiji Press