Kirk here with some strange news. A man named Katsuhiko Higuchi has been arrested because a company in Kumamoto says that he published an unauthorized Spanish-language version of his own autobiography. First, here’s a blurb about who Katsuhiko Higuchi is:

— start quote — Katsuhiko Higuchi, known as the king of the octopus, presents his biographical book, a pleasant account of the first and last Japanese who has supplied his country with abundant catches of cephalopods from Western Sahara. More than fifty years ago, when he arrived, almost no one fished octopus at the Saharan Bank. That is why his life summarizes the recent history of fishing in Morocco, that of the Port of La Luz and, specifically, that of the fishing town of Dakhla. He has been ruined and married several times, but as the Japanese encouraging proverb “Nana says. Korobi already oki “,” if you fall seven times, eight times you get up. " — end quote https://spainsnews.com/the-story-of-the-king-of-the-octopus-in-the-club-la-provincia-la-provincia/

Hmmm. Looks like he’ll need to try to get up again.

Now, back to the reason for Higuchi’s arrest. According to the article, Higuchi asked the company (unnamed) to put the book together (presumedly, including the writing of all the text describing material provided by Higuchi himself). It would seem that part of the deal was that the company would hold the copyright on the book. So, I guess the company considered Spanish-language publication to be a copyright infringement.

OK, I guess I can sort of understand that part. But, I have lots of questions about this.

  1. I would think that such copyright infringement would usually lead to nasty “cease and desist” letters and then, as a next step, suing for damages – not arrest. Maybe copyright law is different in Japan. Or, maybe it’s because he’s normally out of the country. Not sure.

  2. What sort of damage to the Kumamoto company was involved? I looked and I couldn’t even find any information about the Japanese version of the book (title shown in the image) on Amazon or any other website. The Spanish-language book, however, does have Amazon page, though I see that sales have been stopped: https://www.amazon.sg/KATSUHIKO-HIGUCHI-REY-PULPO-Spanish/dp/1791536492/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8 I guess you don’t necessarily have to prove that the copyright infringement caused damages but I would think that a case with no clear damages might not be treated quite as severely as one with such obvious damages. Doesn’t look like the Spanish version sold very much either.

  3. Why isn’t the company named? Why are those of us in Kumamoto not allowed to know which local companies tend to be litigious in this way? https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/3ea327e6e035a17f207f5a473087487dfd900275