This document discusses ongoing copyright issues in Japan's medical industry. It provides statistics on the number of physicians, dentists, hospitals, and medical schools in Japan. It also outlines recent amendments to Japan's copyright law regarding photocopies for government uses and submissions for patent examination and pharmaceutical administration. The document discusses how publishers, document suppliers, libraries, and pharmaceutical and other industry users interact regarding document deliveries. Finally, it presents publishers' positions that reasonable library photocopying for non-commercial academic use could be considered fair use, but commercial uses should not be permitted under fair use or Article 31 of Japan's copyright law.

1. ONGOING COPYRIGHT ISSUES
IN JAPAN
Yu Kanehara
Society for Scholarly Publishing
San Francisco
June 7, 2007

2. JAPANESE MEDICAL MARKET
 Number of Physicians : 280,000
Hospital Practices : 170,000
Private Practices : 100,000
Others : 10,000
 Number of Dentists : 100,000
Hospital Practices : 15,000
Private Practices : 85,000

3. JAPANESE MEDICAL MARKET
 Number of Hospitals : 9,000
 Number of Medical Schools : 80
 Number of Students : 8,000/Year
(For 6 Year Courses)

4. COPYRIGHT LAW AMENDMENTS
 Photocopies for Government Uses/Submissions
☞Patent Examination Process
1. Documents as evidence of rejections against applications.
2. Documents requested by the Patent Office.
3. Documents by the third parties protecting their prior art.
4. Internal Archiving of related documents by the Patent Office.
☞Pharmaceutical Administration
1. Documents as attachments to applications of new drugs.
2. Documents to report adverse reactions of the approved drugs.
 Enforcement Effective From July 1, 2007

5. DOCUMENT DELIVERIES
Publishers
Other Document Pools
University Libraries
(JST, National Library)
Article 31 Document Suppliers/Handlers Article 31
1-2 million
Docs/Year
Pharmaceutical Manufacturers
1-2 million Non-Pharmaceutical
Docs/Year Industry Users (End Users)
Physicians (End Users)

6. PUBLISHER’S POSITIONS
 Reasonable library photocopying on a
fair uses and fair dealing principle may
be permitted as limitation of copyright.
 Certain academic and non-commercial
uses may be considered as fair uses,
but commercial uses must be excluded
from such concept and from Article 31
of Japanese Copyright Law.