The Aozora Bunko (Open Air Library) is a digital library founded in 1997 by Tomita Michio (1952–) with the goal of making Japanese and translated English literature available in an electronic format free of charge. The library contains over 7,000 titles and includes early modern literature by such authors as Mori Ogai and Akutagawa Ryunosuke as well as more modern works by Nakajima Atsushi and Hayashi Fumiko, among others. Recently Aozora Bunko has run into a potential dilemma because most of the Western world holds that copyright is in effect until 70 years after an author’s death. Most of the content in the Aozora Bunko, though in harmony with current Japanese copyright law, would violate this time constraint should Japan’s copyright law be brought into line with Western law. Hence, a petition was circulated in 2007 to lobby for reform in Japanese copyright law. As of December 2008, no clear-cut decision had been made.
Historical dictionary of modern Japanese literature and theater. J. Scott Miller. 2009.