Japan’s new record performance right will make shops, cafes, hotels and gyms pay performers and record labels for background music, starting no later than June 2029.
The amendment to the Copyright Act passed the House of Councillors on 17 June 2026 and was promulgated as Law No. 48 of 2026 on 24 June, according to the Agency for Cultural Affairs. A Cabinet Order will set the start date within three years.
Neighbouring rights means the rights in a recording and its performance, as distinct from the song. Japanese songwriters have been paid for background music since 2002, as Mandy Dalugdug reported for Music Business Worldwide. The performers and labels on the same track got nothing. We covered the vote in June.
What the right covers
The law adds two payment duties, owed separately to performers and labels (Articles 95-2, 95-3, 97-2 and 97-3):
- Playback: playing a commercial recording, such as a CD or an internet-distributed track, in public.
- Communication: relaying a transmitted recording to the public through a receiver.
The ministry’s outline names CD playback and business background-music (BGM) services. Non-profit use with no admission charge is exempt, as is a broadcast on an ordinary household TV or radio.
The cultural council’s 12 March 2026 report says recordings play in about 30% of all businesses and half of hotels and restaurants. USEN, the BGM supplier it cites, claims cumulative dealings with about 830,000 shops.
Who collects, and how the rate gets set
The Commissioner of the Agency for Cultural Affairs designates a collecting body for each side, and once designated, only it can collect. It is a right to bill, not to block. Nagashima Ohno & Tsunematsu expects Geidankyo for performers and RIAJ, the Recording Industry Association of Japan, for labels.
- The body publishes a draft tariff, priced per use category.
- User representatives get one month to demand talks.
- With no deal six months after publication, either side can ask the Commissioner to rule.
The council asked for fees banded by industry and floor area, small-business reductions, and a low starting rate that steps up. Until a tariff is filed, the rate is unknown.
Whose masters qualify
The amendment reuses Article 95’s reciprocity tests, which already govern broadcast royalties (CRIC’s English translation):
- Producers from Rome Convention states qualify unless their country opted out of the Convention’s Article 12 remuneration right.
- Producers from WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty (WPPT) states outside Rome that lodged a reservation are paid only “within the limits of that reservation”.
The United States is in the second group. Its 1999 WPPT reservation limits the right to certain digital transmissions where a fee is charged for reception. A CD or BGM feed in a Tokyo cafe sits outside that, so on our reading a US-produced master collects nothing here. Among OECD members, only the US now lacks the right, Joe Sparrow noted for Music Ally.
The test is the nationality of the producer, legally whoever first fixed the recording. The performers’ share follows the same test, so the label’s passport decides for everyone on the record.
What to do before collection starts
Check who your producer of record is
Artists who record at their own initiative are usually the producer. A British artist who records through a US LLC has likely made that company the producer.
Register, even as a non-member
Article 95(7), applied to all four new provisions, bars a designated body from refusing a right holder who asks it to collect.
Get into the data the bodies will use
The council asked the bodies to distribute on reported usage and, where reports are impractical, on BGM-service statistics. A catalogue missing from business BGM feeds is likely to go unseen. Fix ISRC codes, P-line (recording copyright) owners and performer credits now.
For Japanese labels, the upside is abroad
Reciprocity has kept Japanese recordings from collecting this right overseas. A study the council cites projects about 8.7 billion yen coming in during 2034 against 2.6 billion going out, if Japanese music’s share of use grows 0.2% a year.
Korea runs a similar filter (our guide). For the song side, see how JASRAC pays foreign creators.
