Japanese short story collection

[dill]

Hi, I am new to this Forum and I would like to ask for advice.
We are three Japanese who want to record short stories in Japanese. We many have few more friends to join us, but I am not sure at this moment.

None of us have ever recorded. I have read through the guides in the forum, and am wondering if I can be a coordinator. As I understand a coordinator is better to have some experience, could we have somebody who could help us? Thank you so much!

[Hokuspokus]

Hi dill and welcome to LibriVox

You could submit your short stories to the Multilingual Short Story Collection.
http://librivox.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=28559
This way you won't have to deal with coordinating (yet) and get some experience. You can always decide to do your own collection later with some other stories.

As first step you should do a 1 min test recording to see if the technical things are OK.
http://wiki.librivox.org/index.php/1-Minute_Test

I will move this to Need Help? Got Advice? Forum, once you have seen this.
If you have any questions, just ask.

[RuthieG]

You could submit your short stories to the Multilingual Short Story Collection.

Your stories would still be individually searchable in the catalogue if you do this.

Japan has a much shorter copyright duration than many countries, so remember too that the stories must also be in the public domain in the US, where all our files are hosted - in nearly all cases this means published before 1923. As HP says, if you have any questions, just ask.

Ruth

[dill]

Hi Hokuspokus and Ruth,

Thank you for your advices. Yes, it sounds good to join to the Multilingual short works collections. I will coordinate with friends to do so.

Ruth, thanks for your comments about the copyright...I assume that as far as we follow the rules in the copyright on Japan page at the LibriVox Wiki, we can use any story...is it right?

Thanks again and please move this topic to Need help section.

[Availle]

Hi Dill, and welcome to Librivox!

Unfortunately, copyright is quite the minefield... There are essentially two things to watch out for:

- the story has to be published before 1923 (American copyright, that's where all our stuff is finally stored)
- Depending on where you live, the author (or the translator) has to be dead for x years, where x is (x can be quite different, but I won't bother you with more than you need right now...)
-- 70 years for you - because you live in the UK
-- 50 years if your friends live in Japan.

It's really quite complicated, but you'll get the hang of it if you stick around for long enough!

Have fun on here!

Oh, wait... by the way... I have this wonderful collection of Japanese Stories (translated into English) over here: http://librivox.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=517948 and there's one (Section 11) where half of it is in Japanese... ummm... would you - or any of your friends - like to give it a try?

[Hokuspokus]

As rule of thumb you can use any text that is published before 1923. It's good to have an online source like Gutenberg http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/languages/ja

Paper books make the thing a lot more tricky. Better not read from a paper book for your first recordings.

[Starlite]

In order for your friends to be properly credited in the catalog, they will need to sign up with their own user name.

Hope you have fun.

Esther

[dill]

Hello, Availle and Hokuspokus,
Thanks for the advices about the copyright issue. We will read works before 1923 AND public domain in Japan. By the way, how about the works in 1923. Are they considered as before or after 1923?
Yes, we will read from digital data available on the internet.

Availle, I have read Lafcadio Hearn’s book which you suggested.　　I am very happy to read the parts in Japanese, but rather nervous reading the English part on the section 11. If I provide audio files for the Japanese part, do you think somebody would be interested in reading the English part and combining it with the Japanese part; or is it too much trouble?

May I ask one more question about Public Domain recordings in the other Japanese sites? Has LibriVox ever used existing recordings made for other sites?
We know that most of the public domain books in Japanese were already recorded by book lovers in Japan and those recordings are available to listen from various Japanese sites. Most of them are read by volunteers, of high quality and from variety of fields. The original works/books are public domain in Japan, but the status of the audio files is not clearly stated, in most of the sites. We are wondering if there are any ways to link to or introduce those sites in LibriVox so that LibriVox could provide a huge pool of AudioBooks in Japanese Language. I am not sure about the policy of those Japanese sites, but I can ask them if they are happy to have links from LibriVox.

Thanks again all.

[Availle]

HI Dill!

Let me answer a few of your questions...

By the way, how about the works in 1923. Are they considered as before or after 1923?

We need before 1923, so everything published up to 31st December 1922
is ok, everything else is not (well, there are more difficult rules for those, but let's get to them later, ok?)

Availle, I have read Lafcadio Hearn’s book which you suggested.　　I am very happy to read the parts in Japanese, but rather nervous reading the English part on the section 11. If I provide audio files for the Japanese part, do you think somebody would be interested in reading the English part and combining it with the Japanese part; or is it too much trouble?

Well, that's not usually how we do it Why are you nervous? Because of your accent? Don't let that trouble you - our rule of thumb is: "You can read anything in any language in which you can make yourself understood..." Just give it a try!
There are a few recordings of mine (in other Lafcadio books, check them out) where I am trying to read the Japanese parts. Although I know the basic pronunciation rules, I am sure they sound horrible to anyone who actually speaks the language... (I am trying to remedy this by finally learning Japanese.)

Has LibriVox ever used existing recordings made for other sites?[snip] Most of them are read by volunteers, of high quality and from variety of fields. The original works/books are public domain in Japan, but the status of the audio files is not clearly stated, in most of the sites.

No, and the bold part is the problem here. All of our readers must understand that their recordings are in the public domain (and can be sold for profit by somebody else, for example). This is why everyone who reads for us must be a member of the forum and why we need the disclaimer at the beginning of every file.

[CarlManchester]

Hi Dill,

I don't know if this is what you were looking at when you said "Japan page of the wiki":

http://wiki.librivox.org/index.php/Information_about_copyright_rules#Japan

If you follow that, then you should be okay, because Japan didn't have any copyright agreement with the US until 1955. (The explanation of how this works is complicated, but I'll explain in full if you like).

This only applies to works by Japanese authors, not Japanese translations of foreign works.

You could, for example, do Yuriko Miyamoto or Denji Kuroshima.

(I'm not an expert on Japanese literature, by the way - I looked them up on Wikipedia).

Cheers,
Carl.

[BellonaTimes]

I would be willing to collaborate with the Japanese readers as BC on something like this.

Following is a collection of English translations of of classic Japanese literature. Is there a corresponding volume in Japanese, from the same era? I was thinking that we could have both the original Japanese and this book's translations in one project.

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19264
Japanese Literature
Including Selections from Genji Monogatari and Classical
Poetry and Drama of Japan

Author: Various
Editor: Epiphanius Wilson

and this is one of the stories from the book in the form of a children's book:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/30024
The Fisher-Boy Urashima by Eitaku and Basil Hall Chamberlain

[dill]

Hi, Thank you all, for suggestions and advice.

Copyright

It would rather limit our choice if we can read only works published before the end of 1922, but if we can read according to the Wiki, as Carl suggested, then we can read many of our favourite books.
Carl, yes I was reading the same Wiki.

In order to avoid any confusion, let me clarify specifically. Copyright of all of the following works already expired in Japan and they are available in Aozora Bunko (http://www.aozora.gr.jp/).

1) 　Nankichi Niimi (新美南吉) died in 1943 ... “ごん狐“ (1932) “手袋を買いに“(1943)
2) 　Kenji Miyazawa (宮沢賢治) died in 1933 ... “注文の多い料理店“ (1924) “よだかの星” (1934)
3) 　Masao Kusuyama (楠山正雄) died in 1950 ... “源氏と平家“ (1925) “日本の神話と十大昔話“　　(1983)
4) 　Osamu Dazai (太宰治)　died in 1948 ... “走れメロス“（1940) “お伽草紙“（1945)

Those books were all originally published in Japan and the authors died before 1955. My concern is Masao Kusuyama (3)’s book published after his death (1983). It is a book of Japanese folk tales and would be great to read aloud.

Would anybody kindly confirm if we can read them all, or is there any place I can check the status in US?
One more specific question. I am living in UK. If I read the Japanese books in UK for US site, do I need to follow UK copyright law?

Lafcadio Hearn’s book

Thanks Availle, for your comment. I will think about it and I will come back to your thread in a week or so. I like Lafcadio Hearn’s books and I want to help this project. Let me think about it.

Suggestions from BellonaTimes

The first work you suggest is a rather difficult one. It includes the very old tale back to AD1001, and the tale was written in classic Japanese, which is difficult to read even for Japanese. Nonetheless this is one of the great classics of the world.
If you are very interested in this tale, then we may have two options. One is to read Modern Translation of the tale by Akiko Yosano (died in 1942) . Another option is to get permission to use existing recording. I find the recording of the whole tale (84 hour long !) and is already available free in Japan. The copyright holder (son of the reader) may be happy to donate the file to LibriVox as public domain so that it can be listened by many more people from all over the world.

As I wrote in my previous comment, most of the public domain books in Japanese have been already read by hundreds of volunteers in Japan. Our capacity of recording is limited but I am happy to contact each of the major Japanese sites and ask them if they are willing to donate their recording as Public Domain to LibriVox. I have enjoyed so many wonderful AudioBooks in English from LibriVox, so I am very happy to contribute to increase works in Japanese.

**I just realized the Genji Tale has been already read and available free by one of the readers in LibriVox in her own web site. I have sent her a private message to ask her to read this topic and consider if she could help. So shall we wait?**

The second suggestion, picture books, seems much easier to do. It sounds interesting and I am happy to find out whether/where the original Japanese is available and if I can find, I would enjoy reading them after I finish my first project.

Cheers!

[CarlManchester]

Those books were all originally published in Japan and the authors died before 1955. My concern is Masao Kusuyama (3)’s book published after his death (1983).

These books should be okay as long as they the authors died and the books in question were published in 1955 or earlier. That probably means that the 1983 book will not be possible.

or is there any place I can check the status in US?

I don't believe so, but you can use worldcat.org to check original publication dates if you are unsure.

One more specific question. I am living in UK. If I read the Japanese books in UK for US site, do I need to follow UK copyright law?

We normally advise that you do follow copyright law in the country where you are living. Happily, though, the UK follows something called the Rule of the Shorter Term, meaning that works of Japanese origin which are public domain for Japan also get treated as public domain for the UK. So you should be okay in any event.

Hope that's helpful.

[dill]

Hello CarlManchester,

Your comment is very helpful. Now we are clear what we can read.
Thank you so much!