japanese censorship laws change 2021
In 2017, two people were sentenced to 18 months in prison, a three-year suspension, and a 500,000 ($4,534) fine for copyright-related offenses.2, Journalists who report on sensitive topics also face government and authorities pressure in the form of defamation lawsuits. Messaging apps, such as WhatsApp and Viber, are often. The origin of the term "censor" is traced to the office of censor created in ancient Rome, around 443 BC. Do online journalists, commentators, and ordinary users practice self-censorship? The group essentially serves as an online public relations effort for the LDP, though its rules make clear that members are responsible for their own social media posts. Washington, DC 20036, Scores are based on a scale of 0 (least free) to 100 (most free). Do the constitution or other laws fail to protect rights such as freedom of expression, access to information, and press freedom, including on the internet, and are they enforced by a judiciary that lacks independence? Analysis of about half a million sample tweets posted before and after Japan's 2014 general election revealed that most posts were near-duplicates or retweets of those posted by bots, including many that disseminated nationalist or progovernment messages.3 Experts are concerned that the new policies to streamline data handling between the local and central governments will dilute personal information protections previously established by local governments and may enable increased government surveillance.11 However, several cases of online harassment were documented during the coverage period. politicians who violate the existing restrictions face a potential fine of 300,000 ($2,720) or one year in prison; imprisonment would strip perpetrators of their right to vote or run for office. Authorities have used the law to convict the operators of manga piracy site Mangamura (see C2 and C3). Genshin Impact quietly announced a somewhat odd change right before patch 2.4 launched this week. Specifically, the government will consolidate personal information among local government and central government servers, and will link personal data to individuals unique 12-digit numbers.9, During the drafting process, it became clear that the government's priority was to effectively manage internet users information rather than to protect personal data.10 Abe was . In May 2021, Aren Hachimura, the younger brother of NBA basketball player Rui Hachimura, received racist messages over SNS. Amendments passed by the Diet in 2015 defined personal information in more specific terms as biometric information and numeric data that is capable of identifying a specific individual.5 It is unclear whether and to what extent domestic users have been caught up in the program. Since today we are discussing censorship, I thought it would be appropriate to show two books of Japanese early nineteenth-century shunga (lit. The provider notifies the individual who posted the content and fulfills the request with the posters permissionor without it if the individual fails to respond. This year, China's National Film Board tightened regulations on foreign films requiring that they now undergo a second round of reviews by the Chinese Communist Party. Although that years guidelines from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) garnered criticism, they helped address concerns that the cost of switching providers favored dominant players and created a barrier for new market entrants.8 YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and international blog-hosting services are freely available, as are popular local platforms like Niconico, the video-sharing site, and LINE, a chat application that was launched in Japan in 2011. Japan is primarily a civil law country, and the United States is primarily a common law country. Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) Docomo, KDDI, and SoftBank all launched commercial fifth-generation (5G) services in March 2020.3 The Tokyo-based Safer Internet Association (SIA) reported that it was asked to manage over 7,276 cases of nonconsensual sharing of intimate images in 2019 and secured the deletion of the content in 6,771 (93 percent) of those cases.2, Previously, inflammatory, nationalist speech targeting Japanese residents of Korean origin and other minority groups was also subject to removal. Sagamihara City is also planning to enact a criminal ordinance that would target hate speech against members of specific ethnic or racial groups in 2021.18 The National Center for Global Health and Medicine (NCGHM) announced that it was the target of about 5.3 million ransomware attacks in 2020, compared to 1.2 million incidents in 2019, though they reported that sensitive research and personal information was not compromised during these attacks.12. These distinctions, however, are not perfect. A 2016 law outlined measures that authorities could take to educate the public about hate speech, while also combating such speech when directed against people of overseas origin and their descendants.4 Article 3. Under the guidelines, anyone can report material that infringes directly on their personal rights to the service provider, either to have it removed or to find out who posted it. In February 2020, the Defense Ministry reported that some sensitive information may have been leaked as the result of the Mitsubishi breach.8 Political bots have also permeated the Japanese internet. In March 2019, the Yokohama District Court acquitted one defendant, ruling that the cryptocurrency mining program did not constitute a virus.6 The PS4 launched in 2013, but Japan's release came afterward. Are individuals penalized for online activities, particularly those that are protected under international human rights standards? Japan has three major mobile operatorsau, a KDDI brand; NTT Docomo; and SoftBank. The book also examines the conflict between the obscenity law, introduced in Meiji times when Japan was importing Western models, and the freedom of speech law, which was put in place by the US occupation administration after World War II. Such posts have attacked critics of the LDP government and have at times initiated negative campaigns against opposition lawmakers.1 Security agents and the military were accused of conducting illegal surveillance in cases involving national security in 2003 and 2004.13 While the government is relatively transparent in its censorship decisions, previous blocking and efforts to give authorities more censorship power have raised concerns. Four of its women characters, Jean, Amber, Mona and Rosaria, would be getting new "alternate . Are websites, governmental and private entities, service providers, or individual users subject to widespread hacking and other forms of cyberattack? Implementation guidelines for the law described four main fields of state secretsdefense, diplomacy, counterintelligence, and counterterrorismwhich are further divided into 55 categories.2, Other laws prescribe potentially disproportionate penalties for online activity. 482-FZ on Amendments to the Federal Law on Enforcement Actions Regarding Persons Involved in Violations of Fundamental Human Rights and Freedoms and the Rights and Freedoms of the Russian Federation Citizens. and the online organization of large demonstrations and protests against nuclear energy. In 2002, industry associations produced guidelines designed to protect ISPs from legal liability within the jurisdiction of the Japanese courts. Japanese courts continue to uphold strict criteria for delisting search results on major platforms. In May 2021, the NICT released a summary of NOTICE-related activities, disclosing that it attempted to access 112 million IP addresses, and that the NOTICE alert detected 1,817 targets and notified service providers.6, The conspiracy law passed in 2017 raised the possibility of more government surveillance. Under that law, providers must comply with takedown requests within two days.8, The threat of official content restrictions looms periodically during public debates about child safety, though carriers and content producers have successfully resisted intrusive regulation. The changes allowed the NICT and the MIC to carry out the NOTICE program, authorizing them to attempt to access domestic internet-enabled devices for up to five years in an effort to strengthen cybersecurity (see C8).4 A Change.org petition calling for Mori's resignation garnered more than 145,000 signatures in one week. In January 2021, the revised Copyright Act, which criminalizes the downloading of unlicensed manga, magazines, and academic publications, took effect. Offenders can face prison sentences of up to three years or fines as large as 500,000 ($4,534), and third-party distribution can draw up to a years imprisonment and a fine of 300,000 ($2,720).14 Individuals can generally use the internet anonymously in Japan. The Hungarian winner of the MTV EMA Generation Change Award says an anti-LGBTQ law passed in June is enticing 'fear and censorship.' Hungarian MTV Award Winner on Life Under Country's LGBTQ Law . Every country has, at one time or another, been guilty of grievous acts of censorship. 1850 M St. NW Floor 11 China. Japans Supreme Court protects privacy in part through its interpretation of Article 13 of the constitution, which provides for the right to life and liberty.1 Twitter complied with 29.4 percent of the requests.7. Is access to the internet prohibitively expensive or beyond the reach of certain segments of the population for geographical, social, or other reasons? 10 Individuals and public figures who break this social convention risk censure and even attacks from right-wing extremists, who notoriously attempted to assassinate the mayor of Nagasaki on these grounds in 1990. In Japan it is now against the law to be mean on the internet. Increasing smartphone use has made the mobile market more competitive and resulted in improved pricing options, although the cost of service can otherwise be quite high. In one significant instance, government officials and the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) withheld data about pollution after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. In June 2019, the movements organizer, actress and freelance writer Ishikawa Yumi, submitted an online petition, which then bore almost 20,000 signatures, to the Health Ministry calling for an end to the requirement.4 LINE reported that 80 percent of the global law enforcement requests for user data that it received between July and December 2020 came from Japanese entities. The Inclusive Internet Index 2021 report ranks Japan 17th out of 120 countries surveyed in terms of availability, determined by quality and breadth of available infrastructure.1 According to a survey conducted by international security firm CrowdStrike, a little more than half of the 200 largest Japanese companies, including Honda, Canon, Citizen Watch and Asunaro Aoki Construction, have been hit by ransomware cyberattacks, and 33 companies have paid an average of 123 million ($1.12 million) to criminal networks to prevent their password-protected data from leaks. During the COVID-19 pandemic, there was an increase in online harassment directed at medical personnel and individuals who allegedly contracted COVID-19. In May 2018, public broadcaster NHK and the Intercept reported on the activities of the Directorate for Signals Intelligence (DFS), a spy agency that monitors and analyzes electronic communications.15 In 2017, the Japanese Supreme Court ruled in favor of Google and established criteria for delisting search results that same year.10 You will go to prison. The information collected is reportedly stored for around two months, during which it is analyzed to determine if it is of interest to the DFS. There are periodic reports of arrests under the copyright law, which carries possible prison terms for both uploading and downloading content without the permission of the copyright owner (see C2). GR No. While cyberattacks against journalists and activists are rare, private companies have been targeted in previous coverage periods. In response, hashtags such as Tokyo Shimbun reporter restricted from asking questions, toward a country where we can freely ask questions, and we have the right to know trended on Twitter.9 While both uploading and downloading pirated material was already illegal under the copyright law, with uploaders subject to 10 years imprisonment or fines of up to 10 million ($90,692), the version in effect since 2012 added two years in jail or fines of up to 2 million ($18,138) for downloading a single pirated file.4, In response to the attempted blocking of manga piracy sites in early 2018 (see B1), the Cultural Council of the Cultural Affairs Agency discussed amending the copyright law to expand the types of content that would be illegal to download or reproduce beyond pirated music and videos, to include material such as social media posts showing animated characters or personal blogs with icons containing copyrighted images.5 Some tabloid newspapers and online news outlets have reportedly harassed journalists who disagreed with the government more broadly.4, Women also continue to face targeted online harassment. No major foreign operators have successfully penetrated the telecommunications market independently. Anonymization provisions allow for personal data to be transferred to a third party without the consent of the subject if specific requirements are met.6 In February of that year, the Cabinet Office reportedly sent a letter demanding that the reporter be restricted from asking questions at press events. Japan tends to censor some stuff like decapitations and gore. Kisha clubs provide essential access to officials in Japan, but they have been accused of denying such access to young journalists and new media outlets; the system may also limit some reporters access to certain locations, such as areas affected by the 2011 Fukushima disaster. In March 2020, the government approved a revision of the Copyright Act, making it illegal to download manga, magazines, and academic publications, in addition to music and videos including in the previous version, without the copyright holders permission. Observers have accused MIC officials and the prime minister's office of trying to restrict or influence content under the broadcast law.3, There are substantial concerns that MIC officials are increasingly influenced by business executives who use gifts to garner favor for their policies from government officials. On February 19, 2021, the Justice Ministry announced that 20,120 mobile phone calls were tapped in 20 cases during 2020, leading to 152 arrests. Article 21 of Japans constitution prohibits censorship and protects freedom of speech, press, and all other forms of expression, as well as the secrecy of any means of communication.1 Changes to broadcasting laws in 1950 prohibited the government from direct interference with programmingthough its board of governors is still appointed by the prime minister and its budget approved by the Dietand permitted the establishment of private commercial broadcasting stations. Internet caf users are required to produce formal identification documents such as a drivers license, and to register their name and address. In June 2020, Japan passed amendments to the Act on the Protection of Personal Information. A week after the petition launched, it was revealed that Mori would resign as the head of the Olympic Organizing Committee.3, Women in Japan have also mobilized online through the #KuToo movement, which opposes a requirement that women wear high heels in the workplace. Individuals who have criticized the ruling LDP and the government have also faced targeted harassment. An earlier Intercept report from 2017 analyzed leaked documents that suggested Japanese police and intelligence agencies were involved in in regional surveillance operations managed by the US National Security Agency (NSA). Police can request these details, along with usage logs, if they detect illegal online activity. This would mean navigating the country's notoriously tricky censorship rules, but given that China was, at the time, home to an estimated 560 million gamers, the commercial appeal was irresistible. A KDDI brand ; NTT Docomo ; and SoftBank if they detect illegal online activity grievous. Getting new & quot ; alternate four of its women characters, Jean,,... And private entities, service providers, or individual users subject to widespread hacking and other forms of cyberattack to! ) to 100 ( most free ) to 100 ( most free ), the younger brother NBA! 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