JAPAN Law and Practice Contributed by: Yoshifumi Onodera, Hiroyuki Tanaka, Naoto Shimamura and Rio Ichii, Mori Hamada & Matsumoto
1.6 Interplay Between AI and Data Protection Regulations There are no regulations specific to AI data, but please note that general regulations are appli - cable. For example, if AI data includes personal information, the APPI applies to the processing of that data. Please also refer to 1.5 AI Regula- tion for more details.
concerned with their social reputation, so they endeavour to comply with laws and regulations. 1.5 AI Regulation Legal problems concerning AI have been the subject of intense discussion of late, including matters such as liability for the actions of AI and ownership of rights regarding AI-created con - tent; however, no laws or regulations target the emerging technology itself at this time. The gov - ernment plans to submit a new bill to the Diet in 2025 that will promote the use of AI and address cases of malicious use. The PPC published an announcement on 2 June 2023, stating its interpretation of the APPI in the context of generative AI and requesting genera - tive AI service providers and users to comply with the law. MIC and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) published their AI Business Guidelines for AI developers, service providers and users on 19 April 2024. These guidelines include cautions and points to note regarding privacy and data protection. The Institute for Information and Communica - tions Policy (IICP) and MIC have jointly published the Draft AI R&D Guidelines for International Dis - cussions, which explain the R&D and nine other principles for research into and development of AI. These are tentative guidelines for further international discussion. MIC also published the Guidelines for AI Utilisation in August 2019, which summarise the issues that users (includ - ing service providers) are expected to pay atten - tion to in their utilisation phase of AI in the form of “principles”, and provide explanations based on the principle of a human-centred AI society. Some other AI-related associations have also published the same principles or guidelines for research into and development of artificial intel - ligence.
2. Privacy Litigation 2.1 General Overview
Data subjects may go to court to seek com - pensation for damages or distress caused by breaches of data protection. There are two major types of legal causes. • First, Japanese courts recognise the right to privacy, which is the right of persons not to have their private lives disclosed except for legitimate reasons. Breaching the right to privacy constitutes tort under Article 709 of the Civil Code. • Second, if a business promises to keep per - sonal data confidential in an agreement (such as terms of use) but then compromises the data, the legal cause of breach of contract may also be available. 2.2 Recent Case Law In a decision issued in October 2017, the Supreme Court found that breaching the right to privacy may give rise to claims for compensation for distress caused by the leakage of personal information (eg, names, birthdates, addresses, telephone numbers). The case was appealed to the Osaka high Court, which awarded JPY1,000 to the claimant on 20 November 2019. In addi - tion, the Tokyo high Court awarded JPY3,300 to other plaintiffs on 25 March 2020 for the same data breach. The Supreme Court denied appeals
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