This is a few weeks old now, but in case you missed it: the Yomiuri reports that this year a surprisingly bountiful number of authors’ works enters the public domain this year, including famed historical fiction writer Yoshikawa Eiji of Musashi fame. Other authors include Saisei Muro, Kunio Yanagita, Hakucho Masamune, and Dakotsu Iida.

The reason we readers are so lucky is that all these authors died in 1962, and per copyright law in Japan, the entirety of an artist’s work becomes public domain fifty years after their death.

This law is bittersweet for us Americans who, because of changes in our copyright law, won’t see anything enter the public domain now until 2019. Follow through that link to see all the awesome stuff we could have gotten this year if the law didn’t become shitty in 1978! Real bummer.