Mikio Naruse - contact info

[Aaron Gerow]

In general, the copyright of a film in Japan resides with the  
production company that made it. So the first step would be to  
contact the company that made the film the clip is from. Given  
Naruse's career, that's probably Shochiku, PCL or Toho (PCL is the  
forerunner of Toho, so I think Toho claims rights for PCL films).  
There are some exceptions (if its an independent company, things  
could get messy!). Both Shochiku and Toho are, of course, extant and  
have international rights divisions.

There is the sticky question about whether Japanese films made before  
January 1, 1954, are public domain, as they technically would be  
under Japanese law. Since the Kurosawa film case is still under  
appeal, I don't think you can make the assumption that films before  
that date are public domain if the director died less than 38 years  
ago. Since Naruse died in 1969, technically the Kurosawa case would  
not apply to his films, but unless you have independent access to the  
films, you might still need to contact the original company to get  
the best film image. All that can be discussed with your lawyers.

(For a reminder about the Kurosawa case, see http://aarongerow.com/ 
news/kurosawa_akira_symposium.html)

Aaron Gerow
Assistant Professor
Film Studies Program/East Asian Languages and Literatures
Yale University
53 Wall Street, Room 316
PO Box 208363
New Haven, CT 06520-8363
USA
Phone: 1-203-432-7082
Fax: 1-203-432-6764
e-mail: aaron.gerow at yale.edu
site: www.aarongerow.com