Digitization of archival materials and making them available online requires rights clearance including copyright and related rights. In recent years, there have been several amendments to the Japanese copyright law. This paper overviews how copyrights and other rights relate to digital archives before introducing the papers presented in this special issue.

The 2023 Amendment of the Copyright Act established a new ruling system for works that are not centrally managed and for which the intention of the copyright holder, etc. regarding their use is not clear, in order to facilitate the smooth use of past works and content created by the general public. This system is closely related to digital archiving, and the Agency for Cultural Affairs has identified "cases where rights cannot be processed due to the fact that some copyright holders are unknown or unreachable when digitally archiving past works" as the first situation in which this system can be used. This paper introduces the history of the 2023 revision of the Copyright Act and the outline and issues of the new adjudication system.

Based on various cases that were actually consulted by members in the legal consultation project team of Japan Society for Digital Archive, we will explain in a Q&A format the problems and issues that many people involved in digital archiving often face in practice. Themes include the copyrightability of the materials, the period of protection, the rights to the data photographed of the materials, the distinction between ownership and copyright, the relationship with bereaved families, and the handling of video materials.

This paper aims to provide an overview of the international copyright system's response to digital archives, particularly in museums (referred to as "DA" hereafter), within MLA (Museum, Library, and Archive) institutions. First, the content of copyright-related treaties will be surveyed. Then, we will clarify the positioning of DAs within the context of both copyright and the rights to access creative works, highlighting their efforts in this regard. Additionally, we will discuss the initiatives related to MLA and intellectual property at WIPO. Subsequently, the feasibility of museums' DAs, primarily in Europe and American copyright systems, will be examined, followed by a comparative analysis with the current copyright system in Japan. As a result, it will be revealed that Japanese copyright system provides a relatively favorable environment for implementing DAs.

Interest in digital archiving in libraries is growing rapidly. Following the 2021 amendment to the Copyright Act, the National Diet Library began Digitized Contents Transmission Service for Individuals, and libraries began public transmission of copies of library materials. This paper describes the legal system of digital archiving in libraries.

This paper aims to highlight issues with database construction for opera productions’ performance data. The research project has used literature research and fieldwork to collect performance data from several theater performances to analyze changes in and expansion of music theater performances from the 18th to the 20th century in Europe. Various resources were used, such as posters and playbills from different regions and periods. Since these items reflect the values in each period, elements such as data items, type, and layout, show what was significant for the viewers. These differing elements occasionally compete against the purpose of constructing a unified database. The findings drawn from resource comparison have provided new possibilities for database construction.

In this paper, the structure of multiple exhibitions organized under the same theme were visualized by means of a co-occurrence network. And by comparing them, it is revealed that curation gives viewers different perspectives. Specifically, three exhibitions on the theme of Kawanabe Kyosai were selected. The motifs of the Japanese paintings and ukiyo-e works analyzed were reflected in the names of the works, which made quantitative textual analysis possible. The analysis examined that the viewpoints assigned to the motifs varied from exhibition to exhibition or from chapter to chapter. The results of this paper are expected to be very useful for digital collections with curatorial functions.