CHINA & JAPAN: Shanghai Expo Pays 300 Million Yen for Plagiarized Japanese Song

Just a little update on the 2010 Shanghai Expo song scandal, to let all of you who followed the story here on Japan Probe know that it seems to have been resolved in a satisfactory manner:

The Shanghai World Expo will pay 300 million Japanese yen (approximately US$3.2 million) to Japanese singer Maya Okamoto for plagiarizing her song, according to a report published on Japanese news websites last week.

The song Right Here Waiting for You 2010 was used for the month of promotion leading up to the opening of the Shanghai World Expo and organizers had reportedly spent 10 million yuan (US$1.46 million) producing the song.

Soon after its premiere on Chinese television on April 1, Internet users pointed out that 95 percent of the melody was identical to Japanese pop singer Maya Okamoto’s Stay the Way You Are from 1997.

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SHANGHAI, CHINA: World Expo song halted by plagiarism row

Monday, April 19, 2010

SHANGHAI (Kyodo) Use of the theme song for the World Expo in Shanghai has been suspended amid allegations that it is a plagiarized version of a Japanese song from 1997, according to the expo's Web site.

The expo's secretariat said it is concerned about potential copyright conflicts and that a final decision will be made after its investigation into the matter concludes, the secretariat said.

Japanese media reports and Chinese Web sites have focused on the melody of the expo theme song, which is said to be identical to "Sono Mama no Kimi de Ite," a song released in Japan in January 1997 by pop singer Mayo Okamoto.

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