Kojin jōhō hōgo hō no chikujō kaisetsu (Commentary on Personal Information Protection Laws [5th Edition]: Act on the Protection of Personal Information, the Act on the Protection of Personal Information Held by Administrative Organs, and the Act on the Protection of Personal Information Held by Independent Administrative Agencies)

The information about the book “Kojin jōhō hōgo hō no chikujō kaisetsu – 6^th edition” is based on the year of listing.

This publication is a commentary on the following five pieces of legislation: the Act on the Protection of Personal Information, the Act on the Protection of Personal Information Held by Administrative Organs, the Act on the Protection of Personal Information Held by Independent Administrative Agencies, the Act for Establishment of the Information Disclosure and Personal Information Protection Review Board, and the Arrangement Act on the Law for the Protection of Personal Information Held by Administrative Organs etc.. This publication undertakes a detailed commentary of both the Act on the Protection of Personal Information and the Act on the Protection of Personal Information Held by Administrative Organs. However, discussion of the Act on the Protection of Personal Information Held by Independent Administrative Agencies concentrates on the points in which it differs from the Act on the Protection of Personal Information Held by Administrative Organs on the grounds that a thorough understanding of the latter will afford the reader a good grasp of the former. Furthermore, the preface explains the circumstances whereby these pieces of legislation came to be established, along with the legal system covering the protection of personal information. A salient feature of this publication is the way in which it does not limit its discussion to simply explaining the relevant legal texts but rather expands its coverage to include international trends in personal information protection law, the history of how a legal framework for the protection of personal information was put in place in Japan, the major judicial precedents, reports of the Information Disclosure and Personal Information Protection Review Board, and particular local ordinances on the protection of personal information. The discussion of judicial precedents also includes examples involving local ordinances on the protection of personal information. Furthermore, to facilitate the reader’s understanding, the overview of the legal system for the protection of personal information given on page 26 is displayed in diagrammatic form on page 27 to allow for a conceptual visualization of the relevant information. The most distinctive characteristic of the legal system for the protection of personal information in Japan is the way in which authority in this area is decentralized. The general regulations covering protection of the personal information held by local public bodies include provisions formulated by these bodies themselves, and local personal-information protection laws have by now been passed by all local governments at both the prefectural and municipal levels. These locally adopted laws on the protection of personal information feature innovative provisions in some cases, but legal creativity and innovations are visible across the board and not only at the level of prefectures, designated metropolises and core cities but also in the information disclosure provisions adopted by ordinary cities and townships. Bearing this in mind, this publication includes a comprehensive survey of local personal-information protection laws from the prefectural level down, with more detailed coverage of noteworthy provisions adopted at both the prefectural and municipal levels. It is hoped that the creativity and imagination shown by these local public bodies will in turn offer numerous pointers for thinking through the need for reform of the laws currently adopted at both the prefectural and municipal levels. At the end of the book, the texts of seventeen relevant laws and ordinances are given, along with precedents and reports by the Review Board, and the reader is encouraged to make the best use of these reference materials.
 

(Written by UGA Katsuya, Professor, Graduate Schools for Law and Politics / 2018)