Yamashita taking BMG Victor to court over compilation album - contract with BMG ended 10 years ago - distribution of album halted
Smile (production company that Yamashita has a contract with) sold the master rights for his 1982 records to RVC (predecessor to BMG Victor)
1990 - BMG Victor told Yamashita that it would release Greatest Hits of Tatsuro Yamashita (1980), and asked Smile to provide technical help
Smile agreed and the album was released in September 1990 with the phrase "the only album authorized by Tatsuro Yamashita" on the obi band
February 1991 - Yamashita finds out through a fan letter complaining that 5 out of 12 tracks were different from the versions Yamashita chose for the album (Yamashita is known as a perfectionist)
February 1991 - through lawyer Atsushi Naito, sends BMG Victor a cease-and-desist for false advertising
According to Naito, BMG responds in April 1991
BMG: the album is authorized, because Smile had provided BMG Victor with an independent technician it had hired to help with production
Naito: The independent technician shouldn't be involved with the creative/substantive elements of the album
October 1991 - Yamashita and Smile launch a civil suit in the Tokyo District Court - seeking:
reversion to the production company of all recordings now controlled by BMG Victor
public apology via advertisement
10 million yen ($78,000) in damages
Naito: even though BMG has the master rights, a contractual relationship still exists between Smile and BMG Victor as long as the record company is paying Smile royalties - "they should be prohibited from doing anything damaging to [Yamashita's] reputation."
Cozy (Warner Music Japan) released August 26 - seven years after Artisan (released on Moon Records) - shipped 800,000 copies, reached #1 on Oricon's September 7 album chart
"[...] Yamashita has spent the last few years producing other artists, such as pop duo Kinki Kids."
"[Lawyer Atsushi] Naito represented singer/songwriter Tatsuro Yamashita in 1991, when the artist sued BMG locally after it issued what Yamashita claimed was an unauthorized greatest-hits collection (Billboard, June 27, 1992)."
