My Number-Ho to Jyoho Security (My Number Law and Information Security)

This book provides an outline of the My Number Act, and a multifaceted examination of the law, covering the relationship with the general law on protection of personal information, and an evaluation of the special protection of personal information to examine the effect of My Number Act as the first instance of privacy impact assessment in Japan. The book also discusses the significance of introducing a national identification number system and the practical points associated with it, as well as the impact of the My Number Act on local public entities. Furthermore, the book details the measures that local public entities should adopt in response to the enactment of the My Number Act In addition to discussing how the existing Personal Information Protection Ordinances have been revised in response to the My Number Act, the book shows the means of enacting My Number ordinances as special laws relating to the Personal Information Protection Ordinance. The legal issues associated with enacting ordinances for the protection of specific personal information, such as the Tokyo Metropolitan Ordinance on the Protection of Specific Personal Information, besides the general Personal Information Protection Ordinances, are also discussed in detail. The My Number Act was enacted to enable administrative informatization, but adopting suitable measures to protect personal numbers and specific personal information is a requisite for the introduction of the My Number System. Therefore, a significant portion of the provisions of this law stipulate protection of personal numbers and specific personal information, and relate to information security.
 
The book also examines the background of the enactment of the Basic Law on Cybersecurity, provides an overview of the law, and explains the recent revisions. Revisions to the law related to promotion of information processing are also discussed.
 
The book provides a detailed discussion on policies and laws related to satellite remote sensing data. The Act on Ensuring Appropriate Handling of Satellite Remote Sensing Data (Satellite Remote Sensing Act) has not previously attracted attention from the perspective of information law, and has only been considered significant from the perspective of space legislation. However, the Satellite Remote Sensing Act also has aspects of law on information security. That is, the Satellite Remote Sensing Act covers issues relating to institutional infrastructure for satellite remote sensing businesses, and is also a law relating to information security pertaining to satellite remote sensing data. This is the reason why treatises on literature relating to the Satellite Remote Sensing Act are included in this book, which is a collection of articles on information law.
 
I hope that this book will contribute to promoting an understanding of how to achieve both, the effective use of information and the demands of information security in Japan.
 

(Written by UGA Katsuya, Professor Emeritus, Graduate Schools for Law and Politics / 2021)