JAPAN Law and Practice Contributed by: Atsushi Igarashi, Yoichiro Kuriyama, Misa Takahashi and Kosuke Ojio, TMI Associates
6. Dispute Resolution 6.1 National Court System
ues, age of fans and purchase history of tickets and goods, sports organisations have refined their marketing activities and increased the num - ber of visitors and fans and acquiring sponsors, as well as improving product development and sales promotional activities for sponsors and other stakeholders. 5.6 Data Protection Sports data is subject to protection under the Personal Information Protection Law when it falls under the category of personal information (defined as information concerning an individual that can identify a specific individual by name, date of birth or another piece of information con - tained in that data). Specifically, when providing this information to a third party, it is necessary to obtain the individual consent of the person in question or clarify in advance, by way of a privacy policy, the content, purpose of use and method of provision of the information. In situa - tions where personal data will be used jointly, the privacy policy should stipulate the categories of the jointly used personal data, the scope of the jointly using persons, the purpose of use, etc. In addition, information regarding the results of doping control testing is strongly protected as “special care-required personal information” and it is essential to obtain the consent of the person in question when acquiring this information. GDPR Issues When handling the personal data of individuals residing in the EU, it is necessary to comply with the GDPR. The European Commission adopted a privacy adequacy decision for Japan in Janu - ary 2019, whereby the transfer of personal data between Japan and the EU has been made much simpler and smoother.
Any disputes concerning the existence or non- existence of specific rights and obligations or legal relationships between the parties, which can be finally settled through the application of law, can be heard in court. However, non-legal disputes such as those involving athlete selec - tion or those that fall completely within the juris - diction of an organisation, cannot be settled in court. Domestic sports-related arbitration and media - tion is undertaken by the Japan Sports Arbitra - tion Agency (the “JSAA” ), detailed in 6.2 ADR (Including Arbitration) , and by those sports organisations that have their own mechanisms for dispute resolution. It is not necessary to use the arbitration or mediation of the JSAA, or dis - pute resolution procedures by sports organisa - tions, prior to resolving a dispute in court. 6.2 ADR (Including Arbitration) Any dissatisfaction with a decision made by a sports organisation may result in an appeal within the sports organisation itself or to the JSAA. Sports disputes that cannot be resolved in court may also be appealed. The scope of sports arbitration conducted before the JSAA covers “a decision made by a sports organisation or its organs in relation to a sporting competition or its operation” . Dispute resolution using the JSAA is conducted in line with the Rules of Sport Arbitration and other regulations. Any appeal to the JSAA must be filed within six months from the date on which a party became aware of the decision by the sports organisation concerned, and the arbitral award rendered by the JSAA will be final and binding upon both parties. The sports govern -
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