The global e-discovery community is abuzz about data protection. 2018 will usher in new data protection and transfer laws in the European Union (EU), but many e-discovery professionals are less informed about similar changes in Asia that will imminently take place in 2017.

Japan: Land of the Rising Sun

Japan’s Act on the Protection of Personal Information (APPI) stands as one of Asia’s oldest data protection laws and has remained unchanged since it went into effect in the early 2000’s. The decision to enact Japanese amendments to the APPI was most likely influenced by three factors: a significant increase in the volume of data being created, a rise in data breaches and illegal sale of private information, and a pressure to update policies in light of the EU’s work on the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).