Amid the promotion of digitization in society, it is important to make effective use of a huge amount of data while protecting personal information. It is hoped that a well-balanced system will be created for these purposes.
The government intends to submit a set of bills to revise laws for protecting personal information to the next year's ordinary Diet session. The move is aimed at establishing a foundation for the proper use of data to promote the digital reform that the Cabinet of Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has proposed.
With the advance in the practical use of artificial intelligence and other technologies, enormous amounts of information have come to create economic value. At the same time, there is a growing need to protect personal information, making it an urgent task to establish legislation in line with the new era.
The bills for the revision are to consolidate the three current laws for protecting personal information into one and unify the definitions of personal information among the public and private sectors. The three laws cover private companies, the central government and independent administrative institutions. The proposed amendment aims to apply the same provisions of the central government to local governments and establish common rules nationwide.
The central and prefectural governments, as well as 1,718 municipalities and other entities across the country, have set separate laws and regulations to protect personal information. Due to differences in governing authority and data-sharing procedures, it is difficult to share information with other organizations. Therefore, it has been called the "2,000-item problem," a name derived from the total number of such laws and regulations.
It would be the first drastic revision of the laws since they were enacted in 2003 and organizing this complicated legal system would be of great benefit. The central government needs to carefully design the system while listening to opinions from related organizations.
Expectations for the use of data in the medical and academic fields are particularly growing. Under current circumstances, the procedures for providing information vary depending on who established hospitals, such as the private sector or local governments, making it difficult to promote the smooth use of data.
If multiple medical institutions cooperate to facilitate the analysis of huge amounts of data, it could help them prevent and treat diseases. The use of data may expand for wider purposes, such as solving educational, poverty and other social problems, and finding new business potential.
Another aim of the bills is to unify the handling of personal information nationwide in times of emergencies.
There are a number of cases in which local governments have differed in how they handle releasing the names of people killed or missing in disasters, such as torrential rains and earthquakes. Also in the case of the novel coronavirus, an excessively cautious stance about releasing information has been considered problematic, mainly because it took too much time to share information on patients among parties concerned.
If information is provided properly by disaster-hit municipalities, it will become easier to confirm the safety of victims and provide support for them across multiple organizations. The central government should set specific guidelines on how to implement the system so that information will be released in principle.
The central government reportedly plans to allow local governments to establish their own protective measures for personal information, taking into account the fact that local governments have taken the initiative in implementing such measures. It must make the system easy to understand for the public, while giving consideration to the autonomy of local governments as well.
-- The original Japanese article appeared in The Yomiuri Shimbun on Nov. 24, 2020.
Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/
