On January 22, 2025, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan hosted the Intellectual Property Officers’ Conference for Chinese Overseas Missions online, where Takero Goto, Representative Director of CODA, delivered a lecture.
The Intellectual Property Officers’ Conference is held approximately twice a year, targeting countries and regions where counterfeiting and piracy issues are prevalent. The conference aims to enhance the capacity of overseas diplomatic missions in addressing intellectual property issues by facilitating information exchange among embassies and consulates. The second session of the Japanese fiscal year 2024 conference focused on China, which hosts the largest number of Japanese corporate offices and where combating counterfeit and pirated goods remains an urgent issue. At the same time, the effectiveness of copyright infringement crackdowns is steadily increasing in the country.
At the request of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Takero Goto provided an overview of the changing environment surrounding Japanese content in the digital and online era, as well as the complex challenges and issues related to anti-piracy measures. He then introduced successful enforcement cases in China, highlighting various hurdles that had been overcome as part of the Cross-Border Enforcement Project (CBEP). Additionally, he discussed the future direction of intellectual property rights protection, emphasizing the need to establish a coordinated enforcement framework for Japan’s globally renowned content IPs.
Approximately 30 participants attended the conference, including intellectual property officers from the Japanese Embassy in China and consulates general or offices in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenyang, Dalian, Chongqing, Qingdao, and Hong Kong, as well as representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, relevant government agencies, JETRO Beijing Office, and related companies and organizations. The conference served as a platform for information sharing on countermeasures against counterfeiting and piracy in China, leading to active discussions, Q&A sessions, and exchanges of opinions.
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About CODA
CODA (Content Overseas Distribution Association) was established in 2002 at the call of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Agency for Cultural Affairs to promote the overseas development of Japanese content and take anti-piracy measures. Japan’s proud content, including music, movies, anime, broadcast programs, video games, and publishing, plays an important role in enhancing the nation’s international presence and economic growth. As digital technology becomes more widespread, it is even more significant to protect Japan’s content from increasingly artful copyright infringement and promote the content industry’s development. CODA contributes to the deterrence and detection of online and other piracy, by sharing knowledge with relevant government agencies, organizations, and companies in Japan and abroad, to engage in direct and indirect anti-piracy measures, as well as public relations activities. Visit https://coda-cj.jp/en/activity/ for more information on CODA’s projects.