ASEAN-Japan Law Ministers Weigh Forum on Music Royalties and AI
The first Meeting of ASEAN-Japan Law Ministers in Manila on November 15, 2025, put intellectual property and artificial intelligence on the agenda. Indonesia's Law Minister, Supratman Andi Agtas, called for a dedicated forum to tackle royalties for music and media used or generated by global AI platforms.
He proposed a workshop that zeroes in on how rights should be recognized, priced, collected, and distributed across borders in the AI era. The goal: give policymakers, courts, and rights holders a shared playbook before disputes outpace the rules.
What Indonesia Put Forward
"Indonesia proposed a 'workshop' to discuss intellectual property related to royalties from music and media content generated or used by global artificial intelligence platforms," Supratman said in a press statement on November 17, 2025.
This move builds on the "Indonesia Proposal" scheduled for special discussion at the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) at WIPO in Geneva this December. For legal teams, that signals growing momentum to address training data, derivative outputs, and cross-border royalty flows in one forum.
WIPO SCCR continues to be the reference point for multilateral work on copyright and related rights. Expect any ASEAN-Japan forum to try to align with SCCR discussions to avoid duplication.
Japan's Offer and the Work Plan
Japan's Justice Minister, Hiroshi Hiraguchi, outlined programs under the ASEAN-Japan Work Plan in Law and Justice, covering criminal justice cooperation and an intellectual property seminar. Both tracks support the region's short-term priorities: consistent enforcement, capacity building, and shared standards.
Indonesia also pressed for ongoing cooperation on civil and commercial law. That includes frameworks that make cross-border licensing, enforcement, and dispute resolution simpler for rights holders and platforms.
Why This Matters for Legal Teams
AI systems are already training on and generating media at scale. Without common definitions for "use," "input," and "output," legal risk shifts to contracts and litigation. A joint ASEAN-Japan forum could set practical guidance on consent, remuneration, and transparency that collective management organizations and platforms can implement.
I Gusti Putu Milawati, Head of the NTB Regional Office of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights, welcomed the proposal, saying it shows leadership on royalty protection in the AI era and supports regional digital governance. Expect rights owners, distributors, and AI companies to be invited into the process.
Key Issues Likely on the Table
- Training data: consent, documentation, and lawful bases for scraping/licensing.
- Outputs: originality thresholds, authorship, and related rights for AI-assisted works.
- Royalty allocation: models for usage-based and value-based remuneration across borders.
- Transparency: disclosure duties for datasets, model usage, and content provenance.
- Collective management: cross-border tracking, matching, and distribution standards.
- Enforcement: evidence standards, safe harbors, and remedies that scale.
Action Steps for Counsel Now
- Audit content pipelines: identify where AI tools touch copyrighted inputs and outputs.
- Update contracts: add explicit clauses on training data, model use, attribution, and royalty splits.
- Align with CMOs: confirm repertoire coverage, identifiers, and reporting formats for AI-related uses.
- Set governance: require dataset provenance logs, model cards, and usage records from vendors.
- Prepare for SCCR outcomes: map how possible definitions or exceptions would affect licensing.
- Stress-test cross-border terms: ensure choice of law, forum, and audit rights are workable across ASEAN and Japan.
What to Watch Next
December's SCCR discussion of the Indonesia Proposal will signal where consensus might form. If ASEAN-Japan adopts a focused workshop or forum soon after, expect a draft framework on AI-related royalties and IP practices to follow.
For context on the bilateral track, see ASEAN's cooperation page with Japan: ASEAN-Japan relations. Track outcomes against internal policies so you can implement quickly once guidance lands.
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