SEOUL, September 11 (AJP) - Japan has secured budget funding to introduce a system modeled on South Korea's AI-backed response to online copyright infringement, Seoul's culture ministry said Friday.
Japanese officials saw a demonstration of the Korea Copyright Protection Agency's integrated response system at a bilateral seminar in 2024 and later secured funding to consider a similar system in Japan, according to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.
The disclosure came as the ministry and Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology held the 2026 Korea-Japan government copyright meeting and seminar in Seoul from Wednesday to Thursday.
The countries have held the meeting annually, alternating locations, since signing a copyright cooperation agreement in 2011.
At Wednesday's session, the two sides discussed how to balance copyright protection with wider use of creative works as AI technology advances rapidly.
South Korea briefed Japan on its funding plans, including tripling next year's budget for opening public-sector copyrighted materials as AI training data and setting aside 3.1 billion won ($2.2 million) for research into AI copyright trust governance technologies.
Japanese officials also asked about a Korean working group set up to shape AI copyright policy, including its discussions and policy guidelines.
The two governments agreed to continue talks on AI-related copyright issues at next year's meeting.
They also discussed copyright enforcement, royalty collection and distribution, and revisions to each country's copyright law.
On Thursday, the Japanese delegation visited the Korea Music Copyright Association to discuss royalty collection and distribution.
Japanese officials stressed the need for transparency in how royalties are collected and distributed, and showed interest in the association's standards and procedures for collecting performance royalties.
Choi Young-jin, director general of the ministry's Copyright Bureau, said the talks helped the two countries share policy experience on AI-related copyright issues and online infringement response.
AJP Takeaways
- Japan has secured budget funding to consider a system modeled on Korea's online copyright infringement response system.
- The issue was discussed during the 2026 Korea-Japan government copyright meeting and seminar in Seoul.
- Korea briefed Japan on AI-era copyright policies, including AI training data and trust governance R&D.
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