Restricting Imports
The Japanese government is at it again with their sneaky ways. Their most recent success has been making prices tax-included, which went into effect on April 1st. This means they can now raise sales taxes all they want w/o the general public getting full disclosure. Now, they want to restrict imports of copyrighted material, notably CDs. The problem started off when albums made by Japanese artists for export to China were being re-imported to Japan and sold cheaper than Japan-only albums. To curb this, the labels worked with gov’t to restrict such imports, but the actual proposed bill turns out to be much broader, giving them control over pricing of virtually any imported CD – even stuff intended for the Japanese market by overseas producers. This sort of protectionism sucks. It is not good for the consumer, and ultimately keeps potentially new and novel material out.
What can you do?
The original activist site is here, their English explanation here, and a petition here. It’s all in Japanese, but an English translation should soon follow, as in the long run not only do foreigners in Japan benefit from stopping this bill, but overseas artists have an interest as well. In the mean time, if you work for a Japanese company and/or work with Japanese colleagues frequently, I ask that you spread the news, and get some signatures.
Please.
May 1st, 2004 at 8:05 am
i love the all-in pricing, since it means i don’t have to calculate the tax to know what an item costs (yeah, i know, it’s not that hard),and i don’t agree it means the gov’t can raise taxes w/o us knowing, since I can read a newspaper, too! everyone in europe knows what their vat is. i think the concern is irrational hysteria (that’s as opposed to the rational kind)