Trains models, in Japan

Copyright Act, Act No. 48 of 1970, Arts. 21, 23, 112 and 119 · Read the law's page

• Get the author's permission before you reproduce a work, meaning its physical replication through printing, photography, copying, the recording of sound or visuals, or in any other way: the author has the exclusive right to reproduce it (Art. 21; Art. 2(1)(xv)).
• Get the author's permission before you transmit a work to the public, which includes making it available for transmission where it is to be transmitted to the public via automatic public transmission (Art. 23(1)).
• Treat putting data on an automatic public transmission server connected to a public telecommunications network, or connecting to such a network a server that already holds the data, as making a work available for transmission (Art. 2(1)(ix)-5).
• Stop an infringement and avoid acts likely to infringe: the right holder may file a claim for the cessation or prevention of infringement, and may demand the destruction of objects that give rise to or are made through an infringement, machines or tools used solely for an infringement, and other measures necessary to stop or prevent it (Art. 112(1) and (2)).
• Do not make available or present to the public a computer program facilitating the exploitation of an infringing work, meaning one found to be deliberately leading the public to an infringing work when providing a transmitter identification code, or found to be used mainly for the exploitation of an infringing work by the public; a person that merely provided the opportunity to do so on a website that includes a considerable number of other websites or programs is excluded unless it has for a considerable time and without reasonable grounds failed to comply with the copyright owner's requests to delete the infringing transmitter identification codes (Art. 113(2)(ii); Art. 119(2)(v)).
• Do not aid another person's commission of a copyright offence: the Penal Code treats a person who aids the principal offender as an accessory, and applies its general provisions to crimes punished under other laws unless those laws provide otherwise (Penal Code Art. 62(1) and Art. 8).
• Check the limitations of copyrights in Articles 30 through 50 before relying on any use without the author's permission.

Copyright Act, Act No. 48 of 1970, Arts. 113(6)-(7) and 120-2; Unfair Competition Prevention Act, Act No. 47 of 1993, Arts. 2(1)(xvii)-(xviii) and 21(3)(iv) · Read the law's page

• Do not circumvent a technological restriction measure, an electromagnetic means that restricts the viewing of a work or the running of a computer program and is used with the will of the right holder, by interfering with its effect so as to make viewing possible, other than within a scope justified for research or technology development relating to the measure or where the right holder's interests are not unreasonably harmed; the act is deemed an infringement of the right.
• Do not rely on the private-use copying exception for a copy that you know was made possible by circumventing a technological protection measure, an electromagnetic means that prevents or deters infringing acts through a signal or conversion method.
• Do not transfer or lend to the public, manufacture, import or possess for that purpose, offer for public use, or transmit publicly a device, program or command code whose function is to circumvent a technological protection measure or a technological restriction measure, and do not circumvent such a measure as a business at the public's request.
• Do not transfer, deliver, export, import or provide through telecommunication lines a device, program or command code, or provide a service, that makes possible by interfering with the effect of a technological restriction measure used in business the viewing, running, processing or recording that the measure restricts.

Copyright Act, Act No. 48 of 1970, Art. 30-4 (inserted by Act No. 30 of 2018) · Read the law's page

• Reproducing or otherwise exploiting a copyrighted work, including to analyse or train a model on it, does not require the rights holder's authorization where the purpose is not to personally enjoy or let another enjoy the thoughts or sentiments the work expresses, and the exploitation is no more than necessary for that purpose.
• This exception does not apply where the exploitation would unreasonably prejudice the copyright owner's interests given the work's type and use and the manner of the exploitation.

Agency for Cultural Affairs (文化庁), 'General Understanding on AI and Copyright in Japan,' May 2024

Act No. 53 of 2025 · Read the law's page

• A utilization business operator (any person developing, providing, or using AI-related technology in its business activities) is to endeavor to enhance the efficiency and advancement of its business activities and to create new industries through the active use of AI-related technology, in accordance with the Act's basic principles.
• A utilization business operator must cooperate with the AI-promotion measures the national government carries out under Article 4 and a local government carries out under Article 5.

Act on Prohibition of Unauthorized Computer Access, Act No. 128 of 1999, as amended by Act No. 12 of 2012 and, most recently, Act No. 68 of 2022 (in force 1 June 2025), Arts. 2(4), 3, 11 · Read the law's page

• Do not operate a computer connected to a telecommunications line, where it carries an access control feature, by inputting another person's identification code, or by inputting other information or a command designed to evade that feature, without the access administrator's or the authorized user's permission.
• Reading a public, unauthenticated page that carries no access control feature to defeat has not itself been held to violate this Act.