Duty LXD-6256
Serves under-18s, in Japan
Each law's tag says when it binds: since in force from a date not yet set not yet in force
Act on Development of an Environment that Provides Safe and Secure Internet Use for Young People, carrier and device filtering dutiessince 6 lines
Act No. 79 of 2008, Arts. 2, 13-19 · Read the law's page
- Applies to mobile phone and PHS carriers, sellers of mobile handsets, fixed-line internet connection providers, manufacturers of internet-connectable devices, and developers of software that directly controls such a device's operation; a young person is anyone under 18.
- Carriers: before concluding a mobile phone or PHS internet-connection contract, confirm whether the counterparty is a young person and, if not, whether the actual device user is.
- Carriers: provide the internet connection conditional on use of a youth-harmful-information filtering service whenever the contracting party or device user is a young person, unless the young person's guardian opts out; sellers of covered mobile handsets must implement filtering-enabled measures on the same conditional basis.
- Fixed-line internet connection providers: supply filtering software or a filtering service on request from any user.
- Device manufacturers: build in, or otherwise ease the use of, filtering software before selling an internet-connectable device.
- Developers of software that directly controls an internet-connectable device's operation: make best efforts to build in, or otherwise ease the use of, filtering software.
Act on the Protection of Personal Information, personal information of persons under 16from a date not yet set5 lines
Act No. 57 of 2003, as amended by Act No. 56 of 2026, Arts. 40-2, 35(9)-(10) · Read the law's page
- If you handle the personal information of a person under 16 in Japan, obtain the consent of the person's legal representative, not the person's own consent, wherever Article 18 (use beyond the specified purpose of use), Article 20(2) (acquisition of special care-required personal information), Article 27 (provision of personal data to a third party) or Article 28 (provision to a third party in a foreign country) requires the data subject's consent (Article 40-2(1)).
- Give the notice or public announcement of the purpose of use that Article 21 requires, and the notice of a data breach that Article 26(2) requires, to the legal representative of a person under 16 and not to the person (Article 40-2(1)).
- Before you provide information related to personal information about a person under 16 to a recipient that is expected to acquire it as personal data, confirm that the person's legal representative, not the person, has given the consent Article 31(1) requires (Article 40-2(2)).
- Cease using, or stop providing to a third party, personal data you hold that identifies a person under 16 without delay once the person's request under Article 35(9) is found justified, unless a case Article 35(9) lists applies or ceasing is difficult and you take the alternative measures needed to protect the person's rights and interests (Article 35(10)).
- You need not read the data subject as the legal representative where you have a justifiable reason for not knowing that the information is a person under 16's, where the legal representative permitted the person's business and you acquired the information in connection with it, or where the person has no legal representative or you have reasonable grounds to believe there is none (Article 40-2(1), items (i) to (iii)).