Mysterious Origin and Finance of JASRAC

I received a comment from Wen Er on Music copyright will terminate music spots in Japan.

Those money that JASRAC collect, will belong to who ? will they give majority of the money to the music companies, as the copy right fees ? Who start the JASRAC ?

Basically, the money collected by JASRAC will and must be redistributed to copyright holders. But many people point out the redistribution is not properly done. I extract some interesting numbers from the JASRAC's income statement 2003.

• personnel expenditure: about US$ 4800 million per year


• the number of employees: about 500 (let's calculate salary!!)


• investigation cost: US$ 120 million per year


• a reserve fund for retirement allowances: about US$ 3300 million per year


• asset after distributing copyright fee: US$ 35000 million (as of 2003)


• net revenue after deducting personnel expense: US$ 1400 million (as of 2003)

Comparison of music performing fee:

• Japan: about US$ 650 until 75 hours per month


• US West Coast: US$ 100 until 80 hours per month

Historically, JASRAC was organized with the former copyright act in 1934. But its origin is called "a mystery during a war era".