February 25, 2021 Result of Appeal for Opinions on Draft Revision to Commentary for Guidelines for Protection of Personal Information in Telecommunications Business

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) made an appeal for opinions from Saturday, December 5, 2020, through Friday, January 8, 2021, on a draft revision to the Explanation of the Guidelines for Protection of Personal Information in Telecommunications Business (MIC Notice No. 152 of 2017 with a final revision per MIC Notice No. 297 of 2017), a draft Guidelines for Issuance of a Business Improvement Order to Prevent Hindrance in Ensuring the Secrecy of Communications, and a draft Reference Document on How to Obtain Consent. As a result, 13 opinions were submitted. Accordingly, MIC has decided to open the opinions to the public and MIC’s views on the opinions.

1. Background

MIC submitted a bill for The Act Partially Amending the Telecommunications Business Act and the Act on Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, etc.to the 201st Diet session. This bill aimed at responding to changes in the social structure, such as a population decline and the globalization of the telecommunications market, securing user profits related to telecommunications services, and making institutional development for foreign corporations to operate telecommunications businesses. The bill passed the Diet and The Act Partially Amending the Telecommunications Business Act and the Act on Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, etc. (Act No. 30 of 2020; hereinafter referred to as the “2020 Amendment Act of the TBA”) was promulgated on Friday, May 22, 2020 and will come into effect on April 1, 2021. In connection with the enforcement of the 2020 Amendment Act of the TBA , MIC made a draft revision to Commentary for Guidelines for Protection of Personal Information in Telecommunications Business (MIC Notice No. 152 of 2017 with a final revision per MIC Notice No. 297 of 2017) and made the appeal for opinions on the draft.
Furthermore, with consideration of the discussions in the Study Group on Platform Services (chaired by SHISHIDO Joji, Professor at the University of Tokyo Graduate Schools for Law and Politics), MIC created a draft Guidelines for Issuance of a Business Improvement Order to Prevent Hindrance in Ensuring the Secrecy of Communications and a draft Reference Document on How to Obtain Consent and then made the appeal for opinions on the drafts.

2. Result of appeal for opinions

MIC made the appeal for opinions on the drafts from Saturday, December 5, 2020, through Friday, January 8, 2021. As a result, 13 opinions were submitted.

3. Formulation of execution guidelines and reference documents

Considering the opinions submitted, today, MIC finalized the Guidelines for Issuance of a Business Improvement Order to Prevent Hindrance in Ensuring the Secrecy of Communications and Reference Document on How to Obtain Consent.
MIC also finalized the revision of Commentary for Guidelines for Protection of Personal Information in Telecommunications Business. This revision will come into effect on the date of the enforcement of the 2020 Amendment Act of the TBA.

Contact

For further information about this press release, please fill in the inquiry form and submit it to MIC on the website
https://www.soumu.go.jp/common/english_opinions.html

International Policy Division, Global Strategy Bureau, MIC

TEL: +81 3 5253 5920

FAX: +81 3 5253 5924