March 17, 2022 Result of Appeal for Opinions on Draft Revisions to Both Guidelines for Protection of Personal Information in Telecommunications Business and Commentary for the Guidelines

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) made an appeal for opinions from Thursday, January 27 through Friday, February 25, 2022, on draft revisions to the Guidelines for Protection of Personal Information in Telecommunications Business and the Commentary for the Guidelines　(hereafter these revisions are referred to as the “draft revisions”), which were prepared based on the discussion at the Working Group on the Handling of User Information for Platform Services (hereafter referred to as the “Working Group”).
As a result, 21 opinions were submitted. Accordingly, MIC discloses the submitted opinions along with MIC’s views on the opinions to the public.

1. Background and outline

The Working Group (Chaired by SHISHIDO Joji, Professor, Graduate Schools for Law and Politics, The University of Tokyo) has prepared the draft revisions to the Guidelines and the Commentary for the Guidelines based both on consideration on items to be revised in accordance with the enforcement of the amendments to Act on the Protection of Personal Information in 2020 and the amendments to the same act in 2021, and on study on rules and regulations to ensure the proper handling of telecommunications user information.
As this issue will be placed under the joint management of MIC and the Personal Information Protection Commission, the existing Guidelines for Protection of Personal Information in Telecommunications Business (MIC Notice No. 152 of September 14, 2017) will be repealed and new guidelines will be established.

2. Result of appeal for opinions

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  The published material is in Japanese only.

3. Future schedule

New Guidelines for Protection of Personal Information in Telecommunications Business will be published in an official gazette promptly upon establishment.