Japan to Fine Repeat Personal Info Rule Violators

Tokyo, April 7 (Jiji Press)--The Japanese government is set to introduce fines on businesses that repeatedly commit serious violations of personal information rules under a relevant law.

The government on Tuesday adopted a bill revising the personal information protection law to introduce the penalty and submitted it to the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the Diet, or parliament, on Tuesday.

The bill also includes measures to promote the use of personal data for artificial intelligence development. Specifically, it calls for easing restrictions on the use of such information only for the purpose of compiling statistics.

Under the current law, businesses that stop their violations after receiving recommendations or orders from the Personal Information Protection Commission can retain their ill-gotten profits.

The bill seeks to impose fines equivalent to such profits if businesses repeatedly acquire or use personal information improperly. The government hopes the move will have a deterrent effect by making clear that businesses could be slapped with economic penalties.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]