In April 2005, the Personal Data Protection Act became effective in Japan. There are two guidelines for the healthcare area to support the Personal Data Protection Act, “Guideline for the Appropriate Treatment of Personal Data on Healthcare Providers” and “Guideline Concerning Safety Management of Medical Information Systems”. Medical professionals, including members of our association specializing in medical informatics, might feel that the requirements of these law and guidelines are severe and that they make their routine clinical work, research and education quite complex. However, in view of the current situation in Japanese medical facilities and the ideas underlying the Personal Data Protection Act, these guidelines are actually not thoroughgoing enough. In other words, it is highly probable that these guidelines will need to be revised and made more strict in the near future.
The basic concept underlying the Personal Data Protection Act is the protection of personal data, which is a basic right of a citizen, rather than the conventional notion of an obligation to maintain confidentiality. Therefore, when dealing with the Personal Data Protection Act, primary attention must be paid to the underlying principle and the citizen’s attitude that serves as the background of these principle. To understand the citizen’s attitude, it is quite important to know the historical background of privacy in Japan.
This paper will present the social background against which the Personal Data Protection Act was legislated and trace the course of changes and the elevation of the citizen’s attitude of privacy protection in Japan, with reference to the situation in other countries.
抄録全体を表示