Amendment to the Act on the Protection of Personal Information

I. Introduction
The Act on the Protection of Personal Information (the “APPI”) sits at the center of Japan’s data protection regime. In September this year, the Diet approved the first ever significant amendment to the APPI (the “Amendment”) since its full introduction in 2005.

The Amendment aims to eliminate the ambiguity of the current regulatory framework and facilitate the proper use of personal data by businesses while strengthening the protection of privacy. It also aims to address global data transfers and harmonize Japan’s data protection regime with that of other major jurisdictions.

While the Amendment will likely not be fully implemented until 2017, given the significant extent of the Amendment, companies doing business in Japan are advised to act swiftly to implement updated data protection measures that conform to the strengthened requirements under the amended APPI. Notably, all private businesses in Japan, regardless of their size, will be affected by the Amendment since it will abolish the so-called small business exception applicable to private businesses that have possessed personal data of less than 5,000 individuals in their database in the past six months.

This article summarizes some of the notable changes to the existing regulatory framework as proposed in the Amendment.

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