Among all the anime composers, only a few have left their mark on the anime industry. One of those composers is Joe Hisaishi, who composed many outstanding songs in Studio Ghibli films such as Spirited Away, Nausicaä, My Neighbor Totoro. His memorable scores shaped anime music. However, Hisaishi recently revealed on X (formerly Twitter) on April 26 that he does not want any unauthorized uses or arrangements of his music.
Image via joehisaishi.com
©Wonder City Inc. All rights reserved.
In Hisaishi's statement, Wonder City Inc. He asked those without permission to stop arranging scores and including his name in the concert's title.
— 久石譲 (@official_joeh) April 26, 2024
The removal of Hisaishi's name from the concert title is understandable. By using his name, it makes it sound like he is/was involved in planning the show. Due to an individual's rights to their name, image and likeness, unauthorized use of Hisaishi's name in the concert title would violate his rights.
However, Hisaishi's reasons for arranging his music are a bit more complicated. On the face of it, re-arranging Hisaishi's music without his express permission is a violation of his copyright. However, while practicing a piece of music for performance, musicians and composers often make minor modifications to the piece to suit their needs. These might include adding or removing fade-ins or fade-outs, dynamic symbology changes, or some other factor. So is this a copyright violation of Hisaishi? In any case, a complete rearrangement, such as a concerto, would violate Hisaishi's copyright and should not be done without his permission.
Hisaishi has full rights to enforce copyright in the music he composes. Although copyright laws vary from country to country, there may be some commonalities in those laws.
Joe Hisaishi has composed the music for all of Hayao Miyazaki's films from Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind onwards. He also composed the score for Isao Takahata's The Tale of the Princess Kaguya and is executive producer of the stage version of My Neighbor Totoro at the Barbican Center in London in 2022.
The Japanese government honored Hisaishi with the award of the Order of the Rising Sun, Golden Ray with Rosette for his significant contributions to the country last November.
Source: Joe Hisaishi X/Twitter accountJoe Hisaishi website