Copyright blunder forces Japan to redesign coin

TOKYO (AFP) - After minting 4.8 million commemorative coins to mark a centenary of ties with Brazil, Japan has been forced to change the design due to an infringement of copyright, the finance ministry has said.

The original design showed bronze sculptures of parents and a child standing in Santos, Brazil, where the first batch of Japanese immigrants landed in 1908.

But the Brazilian sculptor of the work refused to let the design be used for the 500-yen (five dollar) coin, the ministry said.

Japan had been planning to distribute the commemorative coin in March, believing that an immigrants' association in Brazil owned the bronze memorial.

The association later discovered that the artist also held the right to his work.

But redesigining the coin is set to cost the ministry up to 10 million yen (100,000 dollars).

"The minted commemorative coins are made of the same materials as the regular 500-yen coin so we will simply recycle them," a ministry official said.

The new design will feature the ship that took the first Japanese immigrants to South America, superimposed over a picture of the Brazilian nation.

The newly-designed coin will be distributed from June 18.

More than 1.2 million Brazilians have Japanese ancestry, a higher number than in any country other than Japan.

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