Abstract

This article examines the mutual agency of Japanese state and non-state in shaping international copyright in the prewar period. Despite having joined the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works in 1899, Japan’s state delegates – who were advised by publishers, translators and legal scholars – used the international revision conferences of the Convention to boycott the efforts of the international copyright community to harmonize global copyright protection and further extend the protection of rights. During the 1920s, the newly established League of Nations and its expert organizations became in charge of regulating copyright protection and provided a new platform for Japanese publishers and other private actors to share their demands with the international community and thereby to directly intervene in the process of expanding global copyright protection. The analysis of the cooperation between Japanese state and non-state actors demonstrate the crucial role that Japan’s private industry actors played as agents of change not only in Japan, but in the development of global copyright norms.

摘要

本文考察了战前日本国家和非国家在塑造国际版权方面的相互代理。尽管在 1899 年加入了《保护文学和艺术作品伯尔尼公约》，日本的国家代表——在出版商、翻译家和法律学者的建议下——利用该公约的国际修订会议来抵制国际版权界为保护文学和艺术作品所做的努力。协调全球版权保护，进一步扩大权利保护范围。在 20 年代，新成立的国际联盟及其专家组织开始负责规范版权保护，并为日本出版商和其他私人行为者提供了一个新平台，可以与国际社会分享他们的需求，从而直接介入扩大全球版权保护的进程. 对日本国家和非国家行为者之间合作的分析表明，日本的私营行业行为者不仅在日本而且在全球版权规范的发展中作为变革的推动者发挥了至关重要的作用。