JIMCA CONDUCTS “COPYRIGHT CLASS”AT OOGUCHI NISHI ELEMENTARY SCHOOL IN OOGUCHI-CHO, AICHI PREFECTURE February.06.2014

On February 5, 2014, Japan and International Motion Picture Copyright Association (JIMCA) conducted copyright education for 77 sixth-graders and 108 fifth-graders at Ooguchi Nishi Elementary School in Ooguchi-cho, Aichi Prefecture. A JIMCA staff member served as a lecturer, and a student from the Graduate School of Education, Waseda University served as a facilitator.

The Copyright Class consists of a quiz session and group discussions. In the first half of the lesson, “Is this real or fake? Quiz Rally” was conducted at the gymnasium where children tackled six quizzes to determine the authenticity of goods such as DVDs of popular movies and toys portraying popular characters.

In the second half of the lesson, students returned to their classrooms and discussed the type of copyright issues that elementary students might encounter. A case study proposed was: “I secretly applied my friend’s drawing for a contest. The work was selected for the Best Work Award, for which a prize was awarded to the friend.”
The students were asked, according to the Copyright Law, whether this would be an issue. When asked “How the friend might feel”, the students offered opinions such as “At least it was fortunate that the work was selected for the Best Work Award, but it would be embarrassing if the work failed to be selected” and “It is considered to be inappropriate by the rules, but how about morality?”.
After the results were compiled by each class, students then gathered again at the gymnasium to present their findings. Lastly, a JIMCA staff member provided a basic explanation of copyright matters at the end of the lesson.

Mr. Kazutaka Iwata, Principal of the school, said, “Copyright is a difficult subject matter for children. The Copyright Class was conducted in a simple manner, firstly using familiar objects to draw interest and then providing a specific example for students to study. Ooguchi-cho is a manufacturing town, so we think it is important to teach in our moral education classes – sensitivity to people’s feelings and what morality means in our society. I am sure that these two hours were great fun for the students.”
JIMCA has visited a number of elementary schools in different parts of Japan and conducted Copyright Classes for five to six schools annually since 2011.