The council they formed aims to take advantage of the National Diet Library's ongoing project to digitalize its gigantic collection, and will make specific proposals in April next year, participants said.

The Japan Writers' Association and lawyers versed in copyright issues are among its members, they said.

The national library, to which copies of all publications in Japan are sent under law, has been engaged this fiscal year since April in digitalizing the full texts of its roughly 300,000 to 400,000 books published before World War II with a view to establishing an electronic library.

The new council will consider ways to make these digital files available in local areas via the Internet, they said.

Referring to a lawsuit filed against Google Books by U.S. authors, publishers and their groups, Hiroshi Sakagami of the Japan Writers' Association said the envisaged Japanese system would aim to prevent a similar dispute in Japan by involving all stakeholders.