Functions and limits of the Act on the Review and Regulation of the Use of Real Estate Surrounding Important Facilities and on Remote Territorial Islands

Abstract

The Act on the Review and Regulation of the Use of Real Estate Surrounding Important Facilities and on Remote Territorial Islands is designed to acquire the personal information of real estate users by sanction to regulate the acts impeding national security and others in the designated areas and to correct them by recommendation, order and penalty. The impediments the act assumes, however, are already covered by existing laws such as the Penal Code so that it is unclear what is newly covered by it and thus it lacks effectiveness. Besides, the act is fraught with problems by allowing the government to easily acquire the information about thought and conscience of people because the prerequisites of the act are ambiguous and their interpretation is unlimitedly widely delegated to Cabinet Order and Cabinet Office Order. So the Diet needs to closely monitor the implementation of the act and to repeal it as soon as possible once its adverse effects come up.