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Kiyoshi Murata
Department Undergraduate School , School of Commerce Position Professor |
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| Language | English |
| Publication Date | 2012/06 |
| Type | International Conference |
| Peer Review | Peer reviewed |
| Title | Atheoretical Legal Policy for Privacy Protection in Japan |
| Contribution Type | Co-authored (other than first author) |
| Journal | Online Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Information Law and Ethics 2012 |
| Journal Type | Another Country |
| Author and coauthor | Yohko Orito and Kiyoshi Murata |
| Details | There is just less effective privacy protection law in Japan. The Act for Protection of Personal Information (APPI), which was put into effect in April 2005 as the basic law for personal information protection covering both the public and private sectors, was crafted centred on protection of personally identifiable information (PII) collected, stored and used by organisations, and the makers of the law deliberately precluded the elements of privacy protection beyond PII protection on the ground that the concept of privacy was elusive. Actually, APPI is not endorsed by careful theoretical considerations of the social importance of privacy protection but superficially follows the OECD's (1980) eight principles and EU's (1995) Directive 95/46/EC. This law is characterised more as regulation for organisations' personal data handling than as law for protecting the right to privacy.
Since soon after its enforcement, various problems of APPI have been pointed out. Moreover, in the current circumstance where the widespread use of social media enhances individual users' revelation of personal information of themselves and others and the integrated reformation of taxation and social security systems based on the development and operation of citizen numbering systems is being engaged in by the central government, the limited effectiveness of APPI for privacy protection is highlighted. Nevertheless, the law makers who are involved in revising APPI seem still hesitate to incorporate the proper theoretical understanding of the social significance of privacy protection into the revised law. This study discusses an appropriate legal policy for privacy protection suitable to the current socio-technological environment in Japan. (the paper is available online at http://conferences.ionio.gr/icil2012/download.php?f=papers/054-murata-full_text-en-v002.pdf) |