I need to buy a license for a japanese book to translate it and publish. What am I to write to the agent?

Question

Do I need to register a publishing house for that?

Answer 1

Just write the publisher, ATTN: Rights Department

And you say, “I would like to find out if I can buy the rights to
XXXX by so-and-so.” And they may get back to you and say, “Yeah, you know what, we can sell you that. In fact, we have 173 copies in our warehouse,” and it’s called the remainder book which means the book is no longer in print, and the term is remainder—“We’ve got 173 copies in our remainder warehouse and if you want to buy all 173 copies for two bucks each, we can sell you the rights to the book for $250.” And you can go ahead and buy yourself a published book for that kind of money.

Good luck,
Scott

Answer 2

If the author is still alive, contact the author. If not, contact the publisher. However, more likely the publisher and the author retain the copy rights and I doubt if you can even purchase the rights to publish in English unless it's a really old unpopular book.

Answer 3

Contact the agent,May be their is a copy wright on that book