Tokyo - Japan has at least temporarily abandoned plans to enact an "iPod tax" that would have provided part of the cost of each device to copyright holders and recording artists, from presumed sales lost to piracy, officials there told the Associated Press.

"At this point, there is virtually no hope for getting the legislation passed," Masafumi Kiyota, of Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs -- which had been lobbying to submit the legislation to Parliament -- told AP.

Kiyota added that opposition from electronics makers played a role in stalling the proposal, which would have added 1% to 3% to the cost of every portable digital audio player.

Variety spoke with a different director in the Agency for Cultural Affairs' Copyright Division, who said they will try again during the next regular session of Parliament next year.

"It will be difficult to pass (the proposal) in its current form, but we are still committed to the basic concept," the Agency's Makoto Kawase told Variety.

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