Internet freedom continued to improve in Japan during this reporting period. The 2014 state secrets law, which covers national security issues, may make surveillance abuses harder to document (see C1 and C2). No third party can do so. For this article, we consider these bodies to be government entities. In June 2008, the law was amended to prohibit the transfer of SIM cards without permission and to require rental companies to verify the identity of customers.1, There are no explicit restrictions on encryption. Government statistics show that the average cost of internet access for households with two or more people across Japan in 2020 was 3,601 ($34.59) compared with 3,753 ($36.05) in 2017.2 At the same time, the actions depicted onscreen, and the wider themes of the story, are entirely free of any restrictions. In June 2020, the Tokyo High Court reversed a Tokyo District Court ruling that Twitter remove posts which detailed the plaintiffs arrest records.14, Courts have also ordered content to be removed in defamation cases, although there were no such rulings during the coverage period. There are some reasons why it has been not modified since . Article 2. Under the law, all online dating services must register with the police, verify their customers ages with a drivers license or credit card, and delete or block content that appears to involve someone under 18; most services voluntarily monitor messages in real time to ensure compliance. Osakas ordinance authorized the public identification of groups that disseminate hate speech, defined as communication which defames and aims to exclude a particular group based on race or ethnicity, including through online transmission, according to news reports.16 In March 2020, Japanese central bank Sumitomo Mitsui abolished the official dress code,5 A week after the petition launched, it was revealed that Mori would resign as the head of the Olympic Organizing Committee.3, Women in Japan have also mobilized online through the #KuToo movement, which opposes a requirement that women wear high heels in the workplace. The bill allows users to download image-based material or certain forms of academic content that is meant for private use.6 A 2016 law outlined measures that authorities could take to educate the public about hate speech, while also combating such speech when directed against people of overseas origin and their descendants.4 (Kotaku also says that Japanese porn is painstakingly censored by hand, earning the highly skilled laborers $15 per hour.) The constitutional right to secrecy of communications is also protected under telecommunications laws.2 Wi-Fi access has been tied to mobile subscriptions in the past, which presents a barrier for users without contracts.7, Connectivity is occasionally restricted accidentally or due to network congestion and server outages. Sagamihara City is also planning to enact a criminal ordinance that would target hate speech against members of specific ethnic or racial groups in 2021.18 2 Courts have continued to consider lawsuits from individuals requesting that search engines delink inaccurate or irrelevant material about them from public results, but the Supreme Court has laid down important guidance that set limits on such right to be forgotten removals.1 In February of that year, the Cabinet Office reportedly sent a letter demanding that the reporter be restricted from asking questions at press events. The number of interceptions has more than doubled from the previous year, partly due to the introduction of new procedures that allow the police to wiretap individuals without witnesses from telecommunication companies.11, The wiretap law was controversial when it passed, in part due to the authorities periodic abuse of surveillance powers.12 Japan has a diverse online landscape. Censorship can be a constant factor, or it can be enacted during emergencies (or particular . In 2017, the UNs special rapporteur for freedom of expression criticized the kisha club system.3 However, several cases of online harassment were documented during the coverage period. Heightened awareness of nonconsensual sharing of intimate images and online harassment culminated in the adoption of a law criminalizing such activity in 2014. Mosaic destruction. Acknowledging that "one might think this is simply conjecture by the ACE Economic Research Center," Yasuda then cited five specific Western-oriented changes he believed were instrumental in contributing to the brand's slow march towards self-destruction: 1. Does the online information landscape lack diversity and reliability? Kisha clubs and an advertising market that favors established players may be preventing digital media from gaining a stronger foothold in the market. For example, the Jiminto (LDP) Net Supporters Club (J-NSC), organized in 2010, had about 19,000 members as of 2017. Service providers protect themselves from civil liability by adhering to voluntary guidelines on takedown requests.8 Japans Supreme Court protects privacy in part through its interpretation of Article 13 of the constitution, which provides for the right to life and liberty.1 Do state or nonstate actors employ legal, administrative, or other means to force publishers, content hosts, or digital platforms to delete content, particularly material that is protected by international human rights standards? Do the constitution or other laws fail to protect rights such as freedom of expression, access to information, and press freedom, including on the internet, and are they enforced by a judiciary that lacks independence? In January 2021, the revised Copyright Act, which criminalizes the downloading of unlicensed manga, magazines, and academic publications, took effect. According to a summary by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), since 2014, there have been fewer severe outages - specifically three to eight per year- compared to the previous decade.8 Some of those arrested were fined 100,000 ($906).5 Analysis of about half a million sample tweets posted before and after Japan's 2014 general election revealed that most posts were near-duplicates or retweets of those posted by bots, including many that disseminated nationalist or progovernment messages.3 In June 2020, the Tokyo High Court reversed a lower court ruling that Twitter must remove posts which detailed the plaintiffs arrest records (see B3). The individuals defense team plans to file an appeal.8. Historically, Japans internet connections were forged through cooperation among government agencies (including then government-owned NTT), universities, and national research institutions.2. You can try refreshing the page, and if you're still having problems, just try again later. Japan is primarily a civil law country, and the United States is primarily a common law country. The panel allegedly suspended its efforts to draft the legislation in October 2018 after failing to reach consensus on whether the blocking would violate the constitutional right to secrecy of communications.5, ISPs voluntarily filter child sexual abuse images, and many offer parents the option to filter certain other content to protect young internet users.6 The report notes that the NSA provided XKEYSCORE, a surveillance tool that can search through a range of content and metadata online, to the DFS.17. The group essentially serves as an online public relations effort for the LDP, though its rules make clear that members are responsible for their own social media posts. In April 2018, the government asked internet service providers (ISPs) to block manga piracy sites, including Mangamura, AniTube!, and MioMio, prompting a public debate that highlighted tensions between the protection of intellectual property on one hand and users rights to private communications and the constitutional ban on censorship on the other.2 10 In one significant cyberattack against civil society organizations, at least 33 antinuclear citizens groups were targeted in 2013.5 In 2016, major Japanese news outlets reported that government officials pressured TEPCO not to use the term meltdown at a news conference shortly after the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant accident.5 Access is well distributed across the population, though access is less common among the elderly.4 In the future, says one pundit, that will change. Authorities have used the law to convict the operators of manga piracy site Mangamura (see C2 and C3). The IHCs website offers online forms for reporting objectionable content, such as material that features obscene images, child sexual abuse images, illegal drugs, or prostitution, as well as a referencing system that allows users to look up the status of submitted reports. Censorship has followed the free expression of men and women like a shadow throughout history. Japanese man arrested for stealing women's shoes and replacing them with new ones; Japanese office disaster: man pees in drink bottle of woman coworker because "he liked her" Japanese Twitter reacts to Logan Paul's "Japanese Suicide Forest" video; Man travels 100 kilometers in middle of the night in Japan to punch another dude in . Under the amended law, an individual can request the court to disclose information about a sender who posted defamatory content. Increasing smartphone use has made the mobile market more competitive and resulted in improved pricing options, although the cost of service can otherwise be quite high. Does monitoring and collection of user data by service providers and other technology companies infringe on users right to privacy? There are periodic reports of arrests under the copyright law, which carries possible prison terms for both uploading and downloading content without the permission of the copyright owner (see C2). In February 2021, weekly news magazine Shukan Bunshun reported that NTT's president and other executives had repeatedly treated officials from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, including Deputy Director General Yasuhiko Taniwaki, to lavish dinners.6 This code sets the age of consent for sexual activity at 13 for girls and 14 for boys, and it has remained unchanged since then. Connectivity for households in the heavily populated Kant region, which includes Tokyo, costs nearly 1,300 ($12.49) more per month than in the least expensive regions, Tohokuin the northeast.3 Japanese politician Yamada Taro has proposed changes to Criminal Code 175, so that hentai and pornography would no longer be censored. During the COVID-19 pandemic, there was an increase in online harassment directed at medical personnel and individuals who allegedly contracted COVID-19. In the United States, codified law can be found at all jurisdictional levels, and may control the outcome of a dispute. At the end of the coverage period, the government had not taken steps to restrict use of the platform. In January 2021, the three major mobile phone companies launched new low-cost plans, after decades of pressure from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.3 which attempts to crack the passwords of about 200 million internet-connected devices in homes and offices, starting with webcams, routers, and sensors, in order to better secure vulnerable devices with stronger passwords. The law did not actually ban or penalize hate speech, leading some critics to argue that it would be ineffective.6 Facebook reported 66 government requests involving 82 accounts between July and December 2020. Are online sources of information controlled or manipulated by the government or other powerful actors to advance a particular political interest? An earlier Intercept report from 2017 analyzed leaked documents that suggested Japanese police and intelligence agencies were involved in in regional surveillance operations managed by the US National Security Agency (NSA). In May 2020, MICs minister Takaichi Sanae, voiced her interest in amending the Provider Liability Limitation Law.3 In 2016, the IHC began providing reports to Safe-line, a website maintained by the SIA.17 Some private companies occasionally accept the governments requests to remove content. The future of an independent NHK is crucial given the increasing demand for impartial, objective and trusted sources of information. Japan tends to censor some stuff like decapitations and gore. You will go to prison. Ahead of the Okinawa gubernatorial election in September 2018, misinformation again spread online.4 Customers in small cities, towns, and villages paid an average monthly price of nearly 3,024 ($29.04). In one significant instance, government officials and the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) withheld data about pollution after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. 22 of 2021 on Environmental Protection and Management ("GR No.22/2021"). In 2016, the law was expanded to include fraud, theft, and child sexual abuse images.9 Police can request these details, along with usage logs, if they detect illegal online activity. In 2021, Japan faces some of the biggest social, political, and economic changes of a lifetime. Internet censorship is the suppression of information online or access to the internet by a regulatory body. Other laws regulate online activity but are not known to have resulted in abuse or disproportionate penalties. However, some digital activities require separate registration. While the government is relatively transparent in its censorship decisions, previous blocking and efforts to give authorities more censorship power have raised concerns. The NTT group remains dominant in practice, though hundreds of other providers offer services including fiber-optic connections and fixed-line or wireless broadband access.1 Genshin Impact quietly announced a somewhat odd change right before patch 2.4 launched this week. Japanese courts continue to uphold strict criteria for delisting search results on major platforms. An online petition that received 145,000 signatures called for the resignation of the chairman of the Tokyo Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, Yoshiro Mori, after he made sexist comments. In 2016, Makoto Sakurai, a personality known for anti-Korean rhetoric, opened a channel on online television station AbemaTV; a rush of online criticism followed, and the channel was deleted.4, Social media platforms occasionally restrict content at the governments request. Look at western porn, the most fucked up shit that they make is incest and adults that looks like teens, in the other hand Japanese porn has the most fucked ul shit that you can ever see in porn, from rape to gruesome torture and pedophilia, just to show how the dumbness of governments is unlimited. alerts & publications Amended Japan Privacy Law Will Come into Effect in April 2022 November 16, 2021 Tokyo was O'Melveny's first international expansion destination, and we have offered robust Japan related Corporate and Dispute Resolution services for our clients for more than 30 years. Individuals who have criticized the ruling LDP and the government have also faced targeted harassment. The company said it complies with requests that are based on a warrant, an investigation-related inquiry, or an emergency order under the Japanese penal code and criminal procedure code.15 Many people lost service for days or weeks, and mobile phone usage dropped by almost half in the affected areas.10. The MIC requested that four industry associations monitor false or unsubstantiated content circulating about the disaster online. A number of laws regulate online activity, including by imposing civil and criminal liability. Following her death, the Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications announced her intention to amend the Provider Liability Limitation Law (see C4).5 However, in October of 2012, the Japanese government stated that Article 23(1) was abolished and, therefore, same-sex . Three men and three women, who acted as instructors and executors alongside Hoshino, were also convicted of violating the Copyright Act.1 What kind of destruction? GR No. The amendments expanded the scope of personal data and eliminated restrictions on the laws extraterritorial applications. During the current ordinary session of the Diet, the Japanese government plans to revise the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act in order to prevent the long-term detention of foreign. Digital activism in Japan has been highly effective at both the local and the national level, and online mobilization tools are freely available. Censorship of pornography in Japan, be it animated, photographed or filmed, has always been superficial, focusing on blocking out or blurring the sex organs. In November 2018, the amended Telecommunications Business Act and the Act on the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) came into effect.3 This law doesn't make any sense and it just have the opposite effect. Individuals can be sentenced to up to three years in prison or fines of up to 500,000 ($4,534). The censorship directives are the latest sign of how thoroughly Hong Kong is being reshaped by Beijing's security law, which took aim at the city's pro-democracy protest movement but has had . In 2017, several municipalities asked for a clearer definition of hate speech under the law.7 Depictions of genitalia are pixelated to obscure them for internet users based on a commonthough poorly articulatedinterpretation of Article 175 of the penal code, which governs obscenity.7 Japan's parliament enacted the proposed revised copyright law on Friday to expand the law to punish those who knowingly download illegally uploaded or pirated manga, magazines, and academic works . In 2017, two people were sentenced to 18 months in prison, a three-year suspension, and a 500,000 ($4,534) fine for copyright-related offenses.2, Journalists who report on sensitive topics also face government and authorities pressure in the form of defamation lawsuits. In other words, even after the new law goes into effect, a . The man originally argued that he was defamed by false information.15, The Internet Hotline Center (IHC), operated through the SIA as part of a contract with the National Police Agency (NPA), cooperates with ISPs to solicit reports of illegal or harmful content from the public.16 Does state surveillance of internet activities infringe on users right to privacy? Edit: is it true CERO does not need to look at PC games? In March 2019, the Yokohama District Court acquitted one defendant, ruling that the cryptocurrency mining program did not constitute a virus.6 Masayuki Nakamoto, 43, was said to have made about 11 million yen ($96,000) from peddling over 10,000 processed porn clips, and was formally accused of selling ten hardcore photos for 2,300 yen ($20). In May 2021, Aren Hachimura, the younger brother of NBA basketball player Rui Hachimura, received racist messages over SNS. YouTubers and Instagram personalities have also become increasingly influential in recent years. Are there legal, regulatory, or economic obstacles that restrict the diversity of service providers? Blogs have a significant impact on public opinion, and several independent journalists are becoming influential through personal or commercial websites and social media accounts. In January 2021, the revised Copyright Act, which criminalizes the downloading of unlicensed manga, magazines, and academic publications, took effect. The court indicated that points such as the content of the search results, the scope of disclosure, the social status of the persons involved, the social situation, and the necessity of disclosing facts were critical in deciding whether search engine results should be removed.13 2, A 2003 law protects personal information collected electronically by private and public-sector organizations when it consists of more than 5,000 records.3 Messaging apps, such as WhatsApp and Viber, are often. Are there economic or regulatory constraints that negatively affect users ability to publish content online? Mori resigned a week after the petition was created (see B8). The 2013 My Number law introduced a unique 12-digit number for all long-term residents used to access unified social welfare services and taxation purposes. I don't know a whole lot about japanese censorship stuff, I know Sony itself likes to censor though. Specifically, the government will consolidate personal information among local government and central government servers, and will link personal data to individuals unique 12-digit numbers.9, During the drafting process, it became clear that the government's priority was to effectively manage internet users information rather than to protect personal data.10 While the censorship and oppression Imperial Japan committed against journalists and the Japanese left pales in comparison to its actions and cover-ups in countries such as China, Korea and the Philippines, it should nonetheless be publicized and confronted. Rakuten Mobile partnered with electronics firm NEC to launch 5G services, originally planned for June 2020. In response, hashtags such as Tokyo Shimbun reporter restricted from asking questions, toward a country where we can freely ask questions, and we have the right to know trended on Twitter.9 Kisha clubs include reporters covering institutions such as government ministries or major corporations but are only open to traditional media companies.1 In Japan it is now against the law to be mean on the internet. Facebook has suppressed content posted by Palestinians and their supporters speaking out about human rights issues in Israel and Palestine. YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and international blog-hosting services are freely available, as are popular local platforms like Niconico, the video-sharing site, and LINE, a chat application that was launched in Japan in 2011. Originally planned for June 2020 long-term residents used to access unified social welfare services and taxation.. Can request the court to disclose information about a sender who posted content! 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