Since the animations have historically been categorized as a kind of movies, we should basically consider the copyright problem of animations as that of movies. Standing on this point of view, I will discuss the problem from the following aspects; ( 1) the author of an animation, (2) the owner of the copyright, and (3) the protection period of the copyright. At the beginning of discussions, some general questions concerning this topic is di scussed. Recently , the copyright problem of movies and animations significantly attract public attention in Japan, because production companies of animations and movies have begun to notice its economical influence, paying special attention to their profitability. Grounded on Basic Law on Intellectual Property enacted in 2002, the Contents Law was enacted in 2004, which aims at protecting the copyright for comics and cartoons and the copyright for animations as well for the promotion of practical applications of them. Today, animations have been diverted to many other applications such as TV-games, and the characters of many animations have generated huge profits. Considering such economical results, we should not turn our eyes away from the problem of the animation and its copyright.