Review of Japan's privacy policy

The recent trend of growing breaches of personal privacy suggests the urgent need for privacy protection. Legislated by Japan's General Services Administration in May 2003, the Privacy Act applies to activities dealing with personal information in private industry sectors including the information telecommunications industry. The Privacy Act stipulates the basic policies for the general execution of personal information protection and roles and duties related to privacy management for information telecommunications companies. The Act take effect on April 1, 2005 for information telecommunications industries. This document reviews the contents of the Japanese Privacy Act and seeks to understand the Japanese policy direction regarding privacy protection to address strategic current issues for Korean privacy policies