Japan’s personal information protection laws were revised recently [1, 2] and were put in effect on 30 May 2017. One noteworthy change in this revision is that it is now clear which category of personal information genomic data belongs to.

Japan’s personal information protection laws consist of the three main laws: (i) the Act on the Protection of Personal Information (PPI Act), which was revised in September 2015; (ii) the Act on the Protection of Personal Information Held by Administrative Organs (PPIHAO Act); and (iii) the Act on the Protection of Personal Information Held by Incorporated Administrative Agencies (PPIHAA Act). Both (ii) and (iii) were revised in May 2016 and these revisions were based on previous revisions to the PPI Act in 2015, and as such the contents of the PPI Act are the most significant for our purposes and thus will be the focus of this paper.

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