May 18, 2023 Results of Appeal for Opinions on the Draft Revision 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 Friday, March 14, through Monday, April 24, 2023, on draft revisions to the Guidelines for Protection of Personal Information in Telecommunications Business and the Commentary for the Guidelines (Personal Information Protection Commission (PPC) and MIC Notice No. 4 of 2022, hereafter referred to as the “Guidelines”) and the Commentary for the Guidelines, which were prepared based on the discussion at the Working Group on the Proper Handling of Specified User Information and the Working Group on the Handling of User Information for Platform Services. As a result, MIC received 13 and 16 opinions on the draft Guidelines and commentary, respectively. Accordingly, MIC discloses the submitted opinions along with MIC’s views on the opinions to the public.

1. Background

In light of changes in the environment surrounding the telecommunications business, MIC submitted a bill on the Act on Partial Amendments to the Telecommunications Business Act to the 208th Diet session to ensure the smooth provision of telecommunications services and to protect the interests of users of such services. After the passage of the bill, the Act on Partial Amendments to the Telecommunications Business Act (Act No. 70 of 2022, hereafter referred to as the “Amendment Act”) was promulgated on Friday, June 17, 2022 (Friday). MIC had the Working Group on the Proper Handling of Specified User Information (headed by OHASHI Hiroshi, Vice President of the University of Tokyo and professor at the Graduate School of Public Policy and Graduate School of Economics) and the Working Group on the Handling of User Information for Platform Services (headed by SHISHIDO Joji, professor at the University of Tokyo Graduate Schools) review the Guidelines and commentary and draft the revision

2. Results of appeal for opinions

* The published material is in Japanese only.

3. Promulgation of the Guidelines and Commentary

Based on the results of the appeal for opinions, the following Notice was promulgated today, and the Guidelines were revised. In addition, the commentary for the Guidelines has also been revised.

Partial Amendment of Guidelines for Protection of Personal Information in Telecommunications Business (PPC and MIC Notice No. 5 of 2023

* The published material is in Japanese only.