Database

The National Center of Incident Readiness and Strategy for Cybersecurity’s (NISC) “Common Standards for Information Security Measures for Government Agencies” allows for government agencies to make use of systems that are "isolated" from the internet if necessary. Information on the agencies affected is not readily available. This policy effectively involves the localisation of data used by the public services concerned.

The Act on the Protection of Personal Information (APPI) did not originally restrict the transfer of personal information to foreign countries, but amendments enacted in 2015 and which took effect in May 2017 added restrictions on cross-border data flows. The amended APPI prescribes three types of legitimate transfers of personal information to a third party in a foreign country: (1) transfers to a country that the Personal Information Protection Commission (PPC) has designated as having an acceptable level of data protection; (2) transfers to a third party in a foreign country in circumstances in which actions have been taken to ensure the same level of data protection as in Japan (such as entering into a data transfer agreement imposing obligations on the transferee meeting the requirements of the APPI); or (3) transfers with the data subject’s consent.

A duration of stay for service suppliers varies and is stipulated corresponding to the Status of Residence in Ordinance for Enforcement of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act. The minimum period of duration of stay is 3 months, but such duration may be extended, as outline in Article 21 of the Immigration Control Act. Common practice is to provide a duration of stay of one year for intra-corporate transferees (ICT), contractual service suppliers (CSS) as well as for independent service supplier (ISS).

Japan's telecommunications market is deregulated and competition rules apply. However, the incumbent Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) remains the dominant owner of the Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) infrastructure. Japan mandates fiber unbundling, in order for other retail broadband providers to offer services on the NTT network.

Japan’s Intellectual Property (IP) Bridge is a sovereign patent fund that manages a large fund supported by several large corporations, chiefly the Innovation Network Corporation Japan, Inc.
IP Bridge accumulates and builds portfolios that respond to the market’s demands. Among its other goals, it promotes patent commercialization among Japanese corporates, which may be used as a defensive wall against overseas entities.
In September 2015, IP Bridge initiated its first legal action in the US, accusing the Chinese electronic company TCL of infringing three Standard Essential Patents (SEPs).

There are no specific fair use or fair dealing provisions. However, five provisions in the Copyright Act concern the so-called “incidental involvement (Utsurikomi)” of copyrighted material. There are enumerated exceptions to copyright protection and specific articles address those uses which do not constitute copyright infringement.

It is reported that, due to Microsoft's large market share and high visibility, the Japanese Fair Trade Commission enforced unfair trade practice provisions against the US based company. According to the Fair Trade Commission, a non-assertion of patents provision (NAP), common to many of Microsoft's licensing agreements, violated Japan's Act Concerning the Prohibition of Private Monopoly and the Maintenance of Fair Trade of 1947 (Antimonopoly Act') constituting an unfair trade practice.

In the patent application process, foreign applicants must designate a Japanese representative.

Although there is no record of telecom or ICT foreign investments being rejected or blocked by the Japanese government, notification procedures for inward foreign investment apply. If a foreign investor intends to make an inward direct investment, he/she shall notify in advance the Minister of Finance and the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications of the business purpose, amount, time of making the investment and other matters specified by the Cabinet Order.

In Japan, there are residency requirements for the members of the board of directors. At least one director with the right of representation must have an address and reside in Japan. This regulation applies to join stock companies (Kabushiki Kaisha) which are, according to Deloitte, the dominant entities in Japan.

There is a legal limit on the shares that can be acquired by foreign investors in government controlled firms. In particular, foreigners are allowed to own a maximum of one third of the aggregate voting rights of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) - a major government controlled firm in the fixed telecommunications market.

Japan's Radio Law and Broadcasting Law limits foreign investment in broadcasters to 20% or 33% for broadcasters categorized as facility-supplying. Foreign ownership of Japanese companies invested in terrestrial broadcasters will be counted against these limits. These limits do not apply to communication satellite facility owners, program suppliers or cable television operators.

It has been reported that Japanese government procurement of cloud computing services is not neutral regarding the technology used by cloud service providers.

Although Japan is a signatory to the WTO Government Procurement Agreement (GPA), its coverage schedules do not include "telecommunications related services" (CPC 754) and only partially cover "telecommunications services" (CPC 752), which are important services sectors for digital trade.

The National Center of Incident Readiness and Strategy for Cybersecurity’s (NISC) “Common Standards for Information Security Measures for Government Agencies” allows for government agencies to make use of systems that are "isolated" from the internet if necessary. Information on the agencies affected is not readily available. This policy effectively involves the localisation of data used by the public services concerned.