With the Internet age advancing rapidly in Japan and elsewhere around the globe, it may seem a rather belated move -- but perhaps better late than never.

After years of intense deliberations, Japan is ready to join a key international treaty adopted in 1996 by the Geneva-based World Intellectual Property Organization to protect intellectual property rights for performances and musical recordings, according to government sources.

The government will submit the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty to a 150-day ordinary Diet session convening in late January for ratification, together with necessary amendments to the Copyright Law, the sources said.