일본에서 개인정보의 형법적 보호

In nowadays, the risk of improper use of personal information such as name, phone number, address, social security number, medical records, criminal records etc., is increasing with advance of information technology and building of their database. So, many countries efforts to establish systematic legislation such as from personal information protection act. Since 2000s, Japan also has begun to enforce Personal Information Protection Act(PIPA). The purpose of this Act is to govern the collection, use and disclosure of personal information by organizations in a manner that recognizes both the right of an individual to have his or her personal information protected and the need of organizations to collect, use or disclose personal information for purposes that are reasonable. But, Japan PIPA has experienced some problems as result of enforcement in 15 years and is now under discussion to reform its several clauses and definitions. First of all, the definition and cope of personal information is not clear, so its definition needs to be revised. And the target of criminal punishment among the improper collect, use and disclosure needs to be examined according to its seriousness and patterns. Therefore, only serious acts are need to be under criminal punishment and other acts are sufficient to be under non-criminal sanction such as administrative fine for negligence.